The Little Girl Who Lost Her Name / Boy Who Lost His Name
Written by David Cadji-Newby
Illustrated by Pedro Serpicos
Published by lostmy.name
We're stunned by the sheer quality of indie titles that have been added to our "Indie Pen-Dance Wednesday" roster. This is something unique and special though, a small-time business founded by three dads (David, Pedro and Asi) and one uncle (Tal) who are the genius collective behind "Lost My Name".
Name books have a habit of feeling impersonal. Gluing a child's name into an identikit story often falls quite flat, and we've received books like these as presents that - though the intention is to make the book feel like the child is the star - end up making them feel anything but special.
"The Little Girl Who Lost Her Name" (For obvious reasons, we chose "the girl" over "the boy") is a story that starts off with a girl who - yep you've guessed it - has forgotten everything about herself, even her own name. Over the course of the story, the girl slowly manages to reclaim all the letters that spell her name - and due to some extremely clever branching software, repetition is avoided and the child's name is woven delicately into a story that doesn't feel pieced together. It has a flow to it.
The other bugbear we have about 'name books' are that they often look a bit cheap and nasty compared to children's picture books that your child will already know and love. Not so in this case, "The Girl Who Lost Her Name" is an utterly and completely beautiful book.
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| The Boy meets a Robot with a letter "R" to give... |
You can start building your child's book in seconds on the "Lost My Name" website. The whole process from start to finish took us next to no time, and was actually quite good fun. With Charlotte having a nice long name, we wondered how children like Amy or Eve, or even Ian would fare. Thankfully they get as great a story and as good a deal as children with longer names (£16.99 for a book that is as luxurious as this, and that feels as personal as this is a pretty good bargain methinks - the quality of the finished product is stunning!)
If you're on the hunt for a unique christmas gift, definitely take a look at "The Little Girl / The Little Boy who lost her / his Name" - An utterly fabulous idea and we wish this plucky team of dads (and uncles) all the very best with their venture!
Charlotte's best bit: The discovery of the girl's identity at the end of the book (She's razor sharp so she had guessed, but the book's journey was a wonderful one for her)
Daddy's Favourite bit: An absolute doddle to create, loved the emails that go out to confirm your order, and the wonderful way the book arrives. Such an awesome idea!
(Kindly arranged for review by Asi at LostmyName)