A Birthday Book

My youngest son, the 9 year old, loves to write stories in English (he speaks both English and Hebrew) and even though I am his Mum and so am terribly biased, I think he has a real talent for it. A while back he decided that he was going to publish a book of his short stories. I am delighted that he has such grand aspirations and decided to make that dream come true for him as a special birthday present. I mentioned it briefly here.

After a little research on the internet I decided upon a company that prints books in the UK. I could have made the book here in Israel but since Hebrew books are read from right to left, I would have had to build my son's book backwards, which I imagined was a mistake waiting to happen! It took me a few hours to create the book, primarily because it involved a LOT of typing, but my graphic design skills came in handy and I found laying it all out a lot of fun.

I have kept my son's 'best' pieces from the last couple of years and have saved as many of the better drawings as possible. He draws all the time, using up a massive amount of paper, and sometimes is quick to discard the pictures that he feels do not quite reach the mark. The pictures that made it into the book were pretty much all met with approval. I tried to match them where possible to a story. When I didn't have a suitable drawing, I added a photograph of the birthday boy instead.

I used Albelli books and overall was very happy with the service, though it took some time for the book to be sent and for me to receive it. Shipping to Israel pretty much always comes under the 'worldwide' bracket and is therefore unnecessarily expensive. Fortunately my Dad was willing to help and knew to forward the book onto me as soon as it arrived at his address in the UK.  He paid less than a third of the price that Albelli had quoted me, using the same packaging.

I made a hardback photobook and paid a little extra for a photo cover. My son was speechless when he saw his first book and it has been shown to anyone who is willing to spend a few moments looking at it, regardless of whether they speak English or not! I am not sure that his form teacher speaks a word of English but she seemed impressed all the same. His friends even asked him how many copies he had sold! Not many, but two more copies have been ordered for the proud Grandparents in the UK, and I see a second collection being 'published' within the next year or so. Look out for it.

* Want to take a look at the book? A link to the online version is here.