Harper Collins Uk has announced that it will be the first major publisher to create personalized "print on demand" books for children.
Customers can pick one of three Noddy books and submit their child's specifics, including name, hair and eye colour; HarperCollins will create and print a specially personalized book for them.
While the phenomenon of the personalized book is not new (small independent publishers have been creating them for years), I do believe that HarperCollins is the first major publisher to jump on the bandwagon. They say that it is part of their "ongoing commitment to expanding the boundaries of traditional publishing". I'm not sure that I like the concept.
I loved the Noddy books when I was a child, because Noddy was warm and funny, and not very clever. Although I might have imagined what it would be like to live in Toyland, it was the imagining that was the fun of it.
Literature for children is about imagining and exploring places not your own. Personalized books of this type won't expand a child's world, even when a major publisher tries to lend them an air of respectability by piggybacking on the works of a famous children's author.
I think that Enid Blyton would have been horrified.
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