1. The order process was easy.
Very easy. Often with personalised books there is a list of questions that parents have to puzzle over and within a week of getting the book the information is out of date (eg who is your child's best friend? What is their favourite colour?). This is not the case with the Lost My Name Books. You simply type in your child's name, click whether they are a boy or a girl and then specify which language you would like the book in. That's it*. What's more is that you can see exactly how the book will look before you confirm the order.
*And your address details and the slight matter of payment of course. Oh, and postage costs are nil. Nothing. Nada.
In short a child awakes to find their name gone from their bedroom door. The story that unfolds through the book is the quest to find the letters that make up their name. And it is done in an enchanting way meeting all sorts of wonderful magical animals and creatures.
My 5-year-old son really enjoyed reeling through the letters we already had, and telling me which letters he still needed to complete his name. It was so lovely to see him pulled in to the story!
3. Each book is unique
In fact the books are so unique that you could order one in English and one in Dutch for the same child and they would be completely different stories.
Whilst reading the English version with my eldest son he posed an interesting question about how the book would be with my name, given how I have three 'A's in my name. Would I meet the same animal three times to collect 'A's? I checked it out and the short answer is no I wouldn't. Three different creatures.
4. The illustrations are beautiful
Gorgeous in fact. I love the illustrations in the books, and so do my sons. I can't say anything else except how beautifully illustrated these books are. Stunningly beautiful. Even my artistic husband was highly impressed by the images in these books.
5. Fabulous quality
The books themselves are of a top notch quality - proper durable pages that will stand the test of daily bedtime reading.
Some additional random thoughts and observations
The 'Lost My Name' website states the target audience of the books at between 2 to 6 years but it certainly wasn't too babyish for my 8 year old (in English which is his second language) and personally I think this book makes a beautiful kraamkado.
The book is available in English (UK and US), Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, French.
And one more thing - last but absolutely not least -
I have one personalised book to giveaway - and a discount of 15% for ten other readers.All you have to do is tell me underneath (and enter your details in Rafflecopter*) in the comments how you came up with the name for your child. I want to hear the funny, heartwarming and bizarre ways you came up with names. I would love to read about the near miss stories of how your child almost ended up with a name you would have regretted later. I want to hear the tales of how your child remained nameless for days, weeks, months (ok maybe just days) because you couldn't agree on a name. Were there dual language issues to consider? How did you finally decide on a name for your children?
In our case I loved the Dutch name Joost but my husband had previously had a dog called the same so had a strange association with the name. Furthermore, we worried about how the name Joost would be butchered by my British family and friends. In Dutch the 'J' is a soft 'J' and pronounced as a 'Y'. The double 'OO' is more an 'O' sound (but slightly longer) than the English 'OO' found in boot for example. In Britain I'm sure our son would have ended up being called Juiced. And that didn't appeal........ So Joost was scrapped.
So over to you........
a Rafflecopter giveaway
*Rafflecopter will not be used to randomly pick a winner but will facilitate contacting the chosen winners.
** Lost my Name approached me to review their books to coincide with their launch onto the Dutch market. Three books were provided to me at no cost. Aside from the free books I get no compensation for any sales made or by hosting this competition. All opinions are my own and because the books are so lovely I agreed to a giveaway. And that is the end of the small print....
my youngest son Danny, was named after the song Danny boy, my midle son was named after his grandad and my daughter was named after Jamie Lee Curtis x
ReplyDeletemy daughters name was after my wifes mothers name
ReplyDeleteJasmine is named after the flower - I like names with meaning. Her second name is Sky - but I am not allowed to use it together - her dad complains that Jasmine Sky is too hippyish ;-)
ReplyDeleteMy daughter was named after a girl at school that was very popular, pretty & extremely well liked with a heart of gold. She didn't know me well, but everyone liked her, years later when I had my daughter that name popped straight into my head. Cheryl.
ReplyDeleteOur names didn't have any drama attached! My son, Aidan, was either going to be Ben or Aidan if he was a boy. As soon as we found out it was a boy the name stuck & we called him that in the womb. Similarly with my daughter, Isabella, there were 3 or 4 names on the table but then my husband suggested Isabella and, again, that stuck whilst she was in my tummy.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest sons name we chose because i had always liked the name callum , my middle son xavier-blake was again because of the liking for the name my youngest son Dustin was chosen because of the meaning
ReplyDeleteMiddle name John, after my Dad (still with us), my partner's dad and my uncle (both deceased) - all called John. First name Samuel just because we liked it and when we saw a scan we thought he looked like a Samuel.
ReplyDeleteAll three of my kids´names start with the letter A. Not really on purpose, maybe a little, ok maybe a lot. My first daughter´s name is Analuna, all of it together not separated like everyone keeps writing and thinking it is. Ana came from the last part of my name and well, luna is moon and I was all about the moon back then. My son´s name is Astor but my husband wanted to call his daughter Antigona, but he got a son first and we went through every name possible that started with an A. A friend suggested Astor and it stuck. And then the little girl was born and of course she is Antigona. ;)
ReplyDeleteFrom the moment I found out I was pregnant my daughter was going to be called Rebecca , when she was born she didn't look like a Rebecca..... I was stuck for a nice name so My doctor was called Dr Kelsey. My daughter is now called Kelsie............
ReplyDeleteMy sons middle name is Geoffrey, I found out I was pregnant with him just after I got engaged to my now husband. I remarked one day to him wouldn't it be funny if I had a weird middle name that I hadn't told you about like Geoffrey, we then called my bump Geoff and found it hard to not call him Geoff when he was born so it became his middle name.
ReplyDeleteI *thought* we had decided on our baby's name, but at the last minute (when my contractions started!) my husband wanted to revisit our whole list of names again. As it turned out, the labor went much more quickly than we had expected for a first child, so as we sped down the highway hoping to make it to the birthing center in time, my husband kept saying, "Don't push! Don't push! You can name him whatever you want, just DON"T PUSH!" We made it just 30 minutes before he was born - and yes, I got to name him what I wanted :)
ReplyDeleteHow did you finally decide on a name for your children? . . . . . . . basically trial and error - we put our favourite names in front of our surname, said them aloud and thus made a short list. We would come back to the list, sometimes add a new name to the list, eliminate one or two and we repeated this process until one name stood out as our favourite
ReplyDeletemy partner is tunisian so we mixed english and tunisian names so we have yasmine,sara,layla and mourad mo for short
ReplyDeleteMy daughter was named after my beloved late grandmother - who was my biggest role model. Her name means 'Daughter of the Sun'.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, this book!
We choose a name that would work in Dutch and in English! Not like a friend of mine called Joke, it's a real Dutch name but in English it is quite a joke!
ReplyDeleteMy sons dad chose his name as he had always liked it!
ReplyDeleteMy Mum was supposed to be named Bridie but her mother changed her mind. I had no idea of this story until I put the name Bridie forward to her as a suggestion for my daughters name... and she told me. I knew then, it was meant to be :)
ReplyDeleteI chose this name when Inwas prob 7 tears old. I have never changed my mind since. Also it made my husband's grandmas happy as they are both named like my LO.
ReplyDeleteWhen my baby boy was born i didn't have a name for him as i didn't know what i was having, so for the first 2 weeks after he was born, he was just called baby. Eventually we decided on Fraser (my surname) and his dad's last name. Finally registered him on the last day!!
ReplyDeleteWe have two boys, a girl and then a boy. When our girl came along we named her Ella. It wasn't until she was 4 days old that we strung her name together with her next oldest brother Sam. Sam and Ella. As they got older at the park I would round them up by calling Ella and Sam or Samuel and Ella just to avoid that moment......Sam 'n Ella.....what were we thinking?
ReplyDelete