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Design Mom

So I ordered a book a couple weeks ago especially for my daughter Olive. It was a customized book. I've never tried something like this before and I was little skeptical about the whole thing. Were they going to throw Olive's name on every page where it would stand out as an obvious and awkward addition to whatever the original story was?

But my skepticism was wasted. The book arrived last week. And it is adorable. And I have to share.

It's called The First Adventures of Incredible You. It's written by Sarah Riley Headrick and Sarah Foreman Rivera. Illustrated by Jill Dryer Bartolucci. Clearly, Sarah and Sarah and Jill make a great team, because the book is really well done. It involved much more customization than I imagined when I started — things like your street name, your favorite park, the child's favorite dish, and on, and on. We even managed to use all four of her siblings names.

But the customizations are worked in so seamlessly, that it's pretty much like internet magic. In fact, our 10-year-old Ralph read it and was increasingly amazed, as he turned page after page, that there were authors in the world that knew his little sister so well.

In addition to the cool factor of the customization, the writing really is very sweet. And the illustrations are bright and appealing and oh so likeable.

Olive hasn't seen it yet. We're saving it for Christmas. But I know she's going to feel like a superstar when she realizes who the main character is.