Homemade recipe

3:25pm Tuesday 22nd January 2008

As an experienced teacher, Caroline Edwards knew the value of homemade, personalised books in encouraging children to read. But it was only when she started to read to her second child, Olivia, now eight, that she realised their value. Olivia has Down's Syndrome, and needs plenty of encouragement and reinforcement.

Now Mrs Edwards has set up her own business, called Love2read, which allows parents and friends to make their own books by uploading family photographs on to the Internet.

Mrs Edwards said: "I was trying to get Olivia interested in books and I started making her homemade books. I soon realised that the technology was available to do a really professional job. You can make the books using photographs that the child recognises. This stimulates their attention.

"Teachers have been doing this for years, but it is only now that you have been able to do it electronically.

"There are plenty of people offering storybooks which use your child's name, or their father or mother's name, but they don't have photographs.

"I was looking to make books that children will pick up again and again themselves, and they will start to read themselves. They are like very early reading books."

After lots of testing, she launched the website just before Christmas and has already sold 100 books to people as far afield as the US and Australia, even before starting her marketing campaign. She said: "There is lots of software available to make photobooks, but you have to download the software. I got a web designer to create something really simple that anyone can use."

While the books are particularly suitable for children with special needs - she is hoping that the Down's Syndrome Association will put a link on its site - she says they are suitable for toddlers from 21 months.

The website is simple enough to be used by young readers of seven or eight to produce their own books, she said.

Mrs Edwards launched the business to coincide with her youngest child, four-year-old Miles, starting school, but she said she also wanted to set up the website quickly because she felt it was such a good idea.

"I felt that if I didn't do it, someone else would. The technology has just become available and digital photos are so widespread now that it seems this is the time to do it.

"There seems to be nobody else doing professionally produced reading books based on children's photographs."

o Contact: Call 01491 845579 or visit the website www.love2read.co.uk