A Book Starring Your Child – A “Let’s Read About Me” Review

Anyone who has ever turned the pages of the family photo album with a little one on their lap knows that babies and toddlers LOVE to see themselves and others they know in photographs. What better way, then, to engage them in story time than by making them a part of the story?

That’s what the folks at “Let’s Read About Me” have done.  When they offered to make me a book for Toddler-saurus Rex in exchange for an honest review I was thrilled.

The process is very simple. You go to their website and choose from several different titles such as, “Who Loves?”, “Busy,” “Counting,” or others.  There are samples of each format for you to look through and choose from.  You can also choose from a few different sizes of books including a larger, hardcover “memory” edition or a smaller paperback that is just the right size for tiny hands.

Once you choose which story your little one will star in you have to do the only truly difficult part.  You have to choose which photos to include! Uploading them and personalizing each page’s script with your child’s name is very simple.

Your book will be shipped to you neatly packaged or you may request gift wrap at check out if you’re buying for a special occasion.

The process really is that simple. It only takes a few minutes and the instructions couldn’t be any easier to follow.

I was very curious to see what our books would look like!  When they came I tore them open right away. (I confess one of my most favorite parts of blogging is packages in the mail. I feel like one of the townspeople in “The Music Man” overtime the USPS truck turns the corner!)  I was not disappointed at all!

We got two copies of our “Days of the Week” book – one of each size.  Both of them seemed very sturdy and well up to being handled by my less than perfectly gentle 2-year-old.

If you look closely at the hardcover book you can see that the cover photo is not printed directly on the cover but rather on photo paper and then attached and covered with a transparent sticker of sorts.  It was extremely neat and well done. I can’t see any way it would ever come apart.

The photos were not as sharp and boldly colored as you would see if you had them printed like snapshots but rather they were sort of muted and soft edged.  I don’t mean this as a criticism.  I liked it very much. I thought it made the book look more like a story book and less like a photo album.  I would recommend, though, that you choose very clear very well-lighted photographs for your book.  The only page I wasn’t thrilled with in ours was the page that included a poorly lit picture that I’d debated using in the first place. The better quality images you give them to work with the better your story will look.

I thought it was interesting that the little book was printed on waterproof paper.  It looks and feels like a regular high-quality paper but it’s actually much more able to stand up to being chewed on or licked. Not that I’m admitting that my strange little boy licks the pages of his books. I’m just saying you can trust me. We tested it. Totally saliva proof. (He must get it from his father’s side of the family.)

Considering that the last early reader that caught my eye in the store was $24 (Yipes! We didn’t need 6 pages of entertainment that badly.) I think these well-made, unique, personalized keepsakes are worth every penny of their $10-20 price tag. They would be absolutely perfect in an Easter basket!

Have fun creating your own “Let’s Read About Me” early reader book!

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