Your Child Steps Into Art - Personalised Hardback Edition Your Child Becomes the Art. A fully personalised art adventure where your child is re-illustrated in 12 different artistic styles. Not a simple face swap, or their name added to a template: Your child becomes the central character inside each artwork. Your child is: Re-illustrated in 12 distinct art styles Seamlessly integrated into each artwork Wearing their own familiar outfit from your uploaded photo throughout The story and gallery remain consistent, but the main character is personalised using your child’s photos - so they truly step inside the art. The Story When your child visits the art gallery, they must venture through the frames, into the artworks, in search of the gallery mice. They are transformed into 12 different art styles on their journey, as they learn fascinating facts about each style. From oil to watercolour, cartoons to cubism, our hero must find each style of mouse and bring them safely home. Written in rhyme and beautifully illustrated, with mice to spot on every page. What You'll Receive Premium A4 Hardback Personalised main character drawn & painted in 12 different styles Rhyming story, with art facts woven throughout "Did you spot" section- find the mice in all the artworks A personalised PDF proof before printing How It Works Provide their name, age, gender and 2 photos (full-body & face). Receive a personalised PDF proof by email Approve it and we print your one-of-a-kind book Please note that as these books are customised and printed to order, delivery may take up to 3 weeks from when you approve the proof. If you are not happy with the quality of the customisation in the proof, you can cancel your order for a full refund. Your Privacy Matters All provided photos and details will be encrypted & stored in accordance with GDPR regulations, not used for any other purpose, and deleted after your order is fulfilled. For more detail see our Customisable Book Privacy page.

I'm offering free proofs of "<Child> Steps into Art" so you can see what your child will look like in the artwork.
Decide after you see it whether you want to buy the book.

Click "Customise" at benjibarkley.com/products/ste...

Your Child Steps Into Art - Personalised Hardback Edition Your Child Becomes the Art. A fully personalised art adventure where your child is re-illustrated in 12 different artistic styles. Not a simple face swap, or their name added to a template: Your child becomes the central character inside each artwork. Your child is: Re-illustrated in 12 distinct art styles Seamlessly integrated into each artwork Wearing their own familiar outfit from your uploaded photo throughout The story and gallery remain consistent, but the main character is personalised using your child’s photos - so they truly step inside the art. The Story When your child visits the art gallery, they must venture through the frames, into the artworks, in search of the gallery mice. They are transformed into 12 different art styles on their journey, as they learn fascinating facts about each style. From oil to watercolour, cartoons to cubism, our hero must find each style of mouse and bring them safely home. Written in rhyme and beautifully illustrated, with mice to spot on every page. What You'll Receive Premium A4 Hardback Personalised main character drawn & painted in 12 different styles Rhyming story, with art facts woven throughout "Did you spot" section- find the mice in all the artworks A personalised PDF proof before printing How It Works Provide their name, age, gender and 2 photos (full-body & face). Receive a personalised PDF proof by email Approve it and we print your one-of-a-kind book Please note that as these books are customised and printed to order, delivery may take up to 3 weeks from when you approve the proof. If you are not happy with the quality of the customisation in the proof, you can cancel your order for a full refund. Your Privacy Matters All provided photos and details will be encrypted & stored in accordance with GDPR regulations, not used for any other purpose, and deleted after your order is fulfilled. For more detail see our Customisable Book Privacy page.

My new personalised book is out!
Your Child Steps into Art, with name & illustrations customised from photos you upload in 12 different styles!
Free custom proofs available now at

I've been quiet recently, but here's a peek at what I've been working on since Christmas.

Thank you for following along through Advent, Christmas and the New Year. Time for me to get back to planning where Patch loses the pages next.

Twelfth Night. Feels like the right moment to let Santa and Patch have a long rest until next December.

Benji Barkley - Children's Author Discover local adventures through Wiltshire with The Lost Pages series. Books featuring Warminster, Glastonbury, Bath, Bradford-on-Avon, Salisbury, Bristol and Devizes available now.

If your child took one of the books into school for show and tell, I hope it went down well - I always enjoy hearing those stories.

Back to school for many today. Good luck to all the small people and the tired adults doing the school run.

Box in the dark, with the Box tunnel and the house lights glowing in the background, is still one of my favourite images from this run of books.

Sunday again. If you are doing the last bits of homework and uniform sorting, a ten minute story break is allowed.

Lost Presents of Wiltshire still works as a wintry story even after Christmas - it is really about dashing around familiar places together.

The decorations will start coming down soon. In our house the Christmas books stay out a little longer - they feel too sad to pack away straight away.

If your school or nursery would like a small Lost Pages corner about your town or county, feel free to send a message.

First morning of 2026. Fresh notebook, same mischievous dog in my head running off with pages.

Whatever you are doing tonight, I hope the year ahead brings you time for stories and little local adventures. Happy New Year when it comes.

New Year’s Eve - feels like a good day to say thank you again to everyone who has bought, borrowed, gifted or shared the books this year.

If you are travelling back home, books are still some of the best car and train companions, especially for small people.

Two days left of the year. Have you had a favourite children’s book discovery in 2025 - Lost Pages or otherwise?

If you are visiting family around Wiltshire or Somerset this week, it can be fun for little ones to take the matching book and see what they recognise.

Wiltshire evenings at this time of year are all dark lanes and lamp light - exactly the sort of places where a page might slip away unseen.

Nearly the end of the year. I am already scribbling ideas for where Patch might run off to next.

In my head, Patch spends Boxing Day asleep by the fire, dreaming of reindeer and biscuits.

Boxing Day often seems to be walks, leftovers and board games here. A good time to read that book you did not quite get to yesterday.

If a Lost Pages book ends up under anyone’s tree, I would love to see a photo of it being read among the wrapping paper and chaos.

Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating today. Thank you for all the support for these little local books this year - it means a lot.

Whatever you are reading tonight - a Lost Pages book or something else - I hope bedtime is cosy and not too late. Father Christmas has a lot to do.

Christmas Eve. In the Christmas book, this is the night everything almost goes wrong, naturally. Patch has a very busy night ahead of him.

If you need something calming before the big day, a quiet story about familiar streets and fields can work wonders at bedtime.

Christmas Eve Eve. I wonder how many “Eve”s you could add before it gets silly…

In Lost Presents of Wiltshire, Santa and Patch weave past Salisbury’s Cathedral on Christmas Eve, trying not to wake anyone up.

We are into proper last minute territory now. Amazon Prime and my expedited option are still there if you need a quick Wiltshire story.