Christmas gift for an 8-year-old: a personalized children's book starring them

An eight-year-old has a best friend, a secret place and a plan. Their book builds on all of that: four to seven sentences per page, characters who bicker and laugh together, and a challenge your child solves with clever ideas. They can read the story on their own, and in the pictures, they're leading the gang.

Make a book for an 8-year-old

Hardcover in time for Christmas: order by November 29

Friends and projects at eight

Eight-year-olds build dens, start clubs with their own rules and write secret messages in code. Friends take center stage, and who gets to join in can make or break a week. Reading has often become more confident, and many children are enjoying their first chapter books, especially ones with pictures and short paragraphs. They like knowing things and collect objects, facts and jokes. They may also start worrying about things they hear, making stories where problems can be solved especially reassuring. A book for an eight-year-old can offer a mystery, a friendship put to the test and dialogue that sounds like children really talking to one another.

Would you like to see a finished book before you decide? Browse our example books.

Themes for eight-year-old planners

With building a tree house, those plans become real: planks, a rope ladder and a sign saying ‘No adults’. The tree house can be headquarters for the whole story. If friends are the big thing right now, try a sleepover, with flashlights under the covers, whispers after lights out and a little homesickness that fades by midnight. Tell us who your child usually stays with, so we can include the right house and friend.

Choose a theme

What you can write about

Eight-year-olds often know exactly what they want, so ask what they'd like their book to be about. Their best friend can join in, with their parents' permission, and siblings can have roles they're sure to discuss. Mention what your child is into: soccer practice, a swimming badge, big building projects on the floor or a pet who keeps escaping. If something big is happening, such as a move or a new sibling, the story can take it seriously without becoming too heavy. Friendship and respect make good themes, as does caring for nature for a child who rescues worms from the sidewalk. In the foreword, you can write something they'll want to read again when they're grown up.

For their eighth birthday and beyond

An eight-year-old can often read the book independently, perhaps several times, before taking it to show a friend. It makes a lovely eighth birthday gift, especially with a foreword from the person giving it. Read it aloud together at least once too: hearing their own story in someone else's voice can still be wonderfully cozy. Afterwards, the hardcover can sit on the shelf beside their chapter books. With the coloring pages, your child can color the book's pictures their own way and perhaps draw a new ending. If the book is a hit, you can make a sequel in which the same gang sets off again.