Wonderbly and the coming of age of the personalised book

David Cadji-Newby and Asi Sharabi spoke to Andy Martin about how important personalised books can be in our children’s development

The Wonderbly team, with David Cadji-Newby, left, and Asi Sharabi, third from left (Wonderbly)

Keen readers have been known to pay vast sums of money to have their names glued to characters in novels by Lee Child or Ian Rankin or Stephen King – even when those characters may be bad guys or doomed to destruction and in any case bear no resemblance to the person writing the cheque (mostly to good causes but still).

Just think, though. How would it be if you could be in a book and it really is you, with your name and your appearance? The “personalised book” pulls it off and the genre has come of age with the personalised books for children produced by Wonderbly.

I have no difficulty imagining what that book would be like if it had me in it, because the author and co-founder David Cadji-Newby explained it. “Andy would wake up and realise that he has lost his name. But then he meets a series of characters who help him get it back. You help them with a problem and they help you in return. An Aardvark provides him with an “A”. Then he bumps into a Narwhal who gives him an “N”. Then a Dragon and a Yeti help him complete it.”