First day of school
Exciting it stays. Unknown it need not be.
What frightens children about the first day of school is seldom the school. It is that they do not know how it goes. A story in which they have already been through it once takes precisely enough of that away.
Personal. Really personal.
What makes the first day of school real
Names. A school with a name and a teacher with a name is a different school from "school".
- the name of the school and of the teacher
- how you get there: walking, bike, car
- who walks in with them
- what is in the backpack
- someone they already know from the class
- what they are dreading — without making it bigger
“She turned straight back to the first page to find her gran again.”
Emma · Harrogate
Together with Mira
From your world to your story
Tell Mira
Answer a few questions about someone who matters to you.
Mira listens
Mira asks deeper questions and finds the finest moments.
Mira writes
Mira writes a personal story full of detail, warmth and meaning.
See it first
Read the story at your leisure and say what could be different.
Your approval
Only when you are completely happy is it printed.
Your story
Receive the story in the format of your choice.
Sometimes all you need is a small idea
Three directions Mira can take
The backpack that was too big
It does not fit yet, and that turns out to be exactly right: something can come along in it that they need.
Who is sitting next to me?
A morning of working out who the children around them are, and at the end there is one who stays.
The teacher already knew their name
About how small it is and how much it helps when someone says your name before you have to say it.
You need not choose. “Let Mira choose” is there too, and your own idea is always welcome.
From your world
What you tell, and what comes out
- Mees, 4
- going to Rainbow School
- teacher Anne
- little sister Nova
- dares not let go
Mira’s proposal
Mees and the first morning at the Rainbow
Mees has decided he is not going. But Rainbow School turns out to have a door that only opens if you dare to look through it, and teacher Anne is already waiting there.
An example of what such a proposal looks like. Yours will be about you.
Your story. In the format that suits you.
eBook
from €9.95
Hardcover
from €29.95
Audiobook
from €4.95
Colouring book
from €14.95
Story Movie
Coming soon
In short
- Price
- From €9.95 as an eBook, with a hardcover from €24.95
- Shipping
- €4.95 per order in the Netherlands; eBook and audiobook free
- Delivery
- 3 working days in the Netherlands, counted from the moment you approve the story; eBook and audiobook at once
- The book
- Hardcover of 21 × 21 cm, usually around thirty pages: fourteen scenes, each with a drawing
- Age
- Written for children of about 3 to 8; for a special occasion also about adults
- Characters
- Up to five, the main character included — with or without a photo
- Languages
- Dutch, German, French and English
- Photos
- Not required. A photo is deleted ninety days after you approve the drawing
- Approval
- Nothing goes to the printer before you have read and approved the story
Best a few weeks in advance
Reading aloud in the summer holidays works better than the evening before. Then the story is already familiar at the moment it really happens — that is the whole idea.
Questions people often ask
Does this work if my child is really dreading school?
Often precisely then. Tell Mira in the field for personal details what they are dreading; she works it into the story without making a problem of it and without tacking a moral on at the end.
Can the name of the school and the teacher be in it?
Yes, and that is precisely what makes the difference. Everything you fill in is used as you write it — so do check the spelling of the teacher’s name.
Is it suitable for starting Year 2 as well?
Certainly. For many children the step up to real reading is more exciting than the first day of nursery. Choose the age 6–8 then; the story becomes longer and is more about learning to read than about letting go.