Personalized Story Books for your kid's birthday souvenirs!!

Hi All,

Guess what?!? 

Thinking of what to share at your kids's birthday parties that will stand out from the norm?

Well you are in luck! 

Why not make your kid the star of an adventure story with Lulu?!
Imagine creating a short motivational story of your kid... for your kid!
Or you could have a lovely collection of pictures to colour in, word search puzzles and cross word puzzles... The choices are endless!...

Don't hesitate... Call Lulu's Playpen Services on +2348074737663 or email cynthia@lulusplaypen.com for more information.

We'll be expecting you!...

Free printable pictures from Lulu's Colouring Story Book series.

Here are some downloadable cover page pictures from the Lulu's Colouring Story Book series and enjoy colouring them in!...

Lulu & The Study Crew... A story about bringing out the best in you.

Lulu & Big Bad Boy... A story about peer pressure

Look out for more freebies around Lagos... Lulu will give out some free printables for kids all around to have fun colouring. There will also be free crossword puzzles and wordsearch games! Keep your eyes peeled!

5 things to "thrash out" in order to have a pocket-friendly baby shower

Ushering in a baby into this world is one of the most precious gifts given to a woman. It is no wonder that this stage is celebrated in the gainful wait of this "bundle of joy". Baby showers are fun and should be made special for every mother-to-be. However; like with many celebrations, cost can be an issue. Well here are some tips to planning a budget friendly baby shower...

Fist of all, let's get this clear... baby showers are planned incognito. so the mother-to-be is totally in the blanks about this party. This can be planned by either her friends or even her colleagues at work.
Right! Now that THAT's out of the way... let get back to how we can organise a pocket friendly baby shower. If you can get these 5 items checked off your list... your pretty much done!

Location. The most cost effective location for any baby shower would be to do it indoors. So get a volunteer from among you to use their house as the venue for the baby shower. Another bright idea would be to use your office as the venue (if it is a colleague organising), but only if this is allowed and it doesn't interfere with your office activities. Either way, you totally get to eliminate the stress of getting rentals like tables. chairs... heck a canopy!

Invites & Invitations. Thankfully, we got the internet and our beloved mobile phones. So long to sending invitation cards! Once you've made your invitation list, just send a text to everyone with the baby shower details. You can also send emails to everyone. Or here's a better idea... Since sending full details of the baby shower can run into 2 SMS's... why not text everybody to email you their email addresses (or at least those you do not have their email ads) and then email the lot the baby shower details. You can even throw in a baby shower picture in there too to set the mood. Better still, create a baby shower group on Whatsapp and communicate with everyone anytime... any day about the party!

Decorations.  To do this, you would have decided on a theme. It could a teddy bear theme, a prince or princess theme, rain drop theme or even a diaper theme! Whatever it is, it should be the driving force behind the type of decorations you get. Try and be creative here... Google is your friend! You can get tons of DIY ideas from the net. A lot of your decoration can be hand made, e.g. you can make baby napkins from handkerchiefs or dish/face towels, fold them into the shape of baby diapers and use baby pins for the finishing touches. These can be placed anywhere around the venue or attached to ribbons and hung anywhere. There is a lot that can be made with colourful cardboard paper, scissors, glitter, glue, sellotape, a couple of markers and some ribbon! You can make a banner, crowns, baby shoes and more! And of course... no party is complete without balloons!

Food & Drink. Come up with a list of finger foods such as small chops, sandwiches, popcorn, chips, biscuits, ice cream, cup cakes, etc. You may throw in some moi-moi or grilled chicken. No need for the party rice or eba and soup tinz with orishi orishi. Having healthy snacks are also good, so pile on the fruits- make a fruit salad maybe. You can assign foods to different members on your attendance list so you don't end up having 5 cakes, 1 tray of chicken and moi-moi, 1 liter ice cream and NO drinks! Or you can make your food list and come up with your budget and bill everybody for it. In fact, this can apply for the budget of the entire baby shower! "Spread the love".

Games/Entertainment. This ain't a traditional wedding so no need to hire dancers and stuff... In fact, scrap entertainment and stick to a trusty sound system and great music. Focus more on games. To be real conservative on the spending, stick to games you need just pen and paper. You can download baby shower printable games from the internet. You could also make some up like a pin the pacifier on the baby's mouth (which is really just a rendition of the "pin the donkey's tail game we did as kids"). All you need is a cardboard paper (this you can get from any old carton box in the store), a printout of the baby and the pacifiers on separate papers (you can download these) a pair of scissors, a paper pin for the pacifier and some glue. Just stick the baby printout on the cardboard and cut around it. Now that it looks like a sturdy board game, you can sellotape that to a wall or door. Cut out the pacifiers and pass the paper pin though one. this will be used to pin the pacifier on the baby.
... and your done!!

A snippet of Lulu and the Sutdy Crew...

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to share with you a bit more about Lulu & the Study Crew. Here is a link on Lulu & the Study Crew. It's a snippet of the book. And NO it's not an audio book. At least not yet... It is a colouring book. I felt this would be a nice way to get some of you parents, guardians, aunts, uncles, and pretty much everybody that has or loves kids dearly to truly understand what Lulu's Colouring Book series are about. 

They are motivational books for kids. Your kids will absolutely love it! absolutely love it!... Hope you like reading what's on the video :) 

Remember to leave your comments below... 
Visit our website, 
Like us on our facebook page
Follow us on twitter as well... 
(Details in the video)

What about Children’s book writing in Nigeria and Africa? ...

My personal observations about children books in Nigeria are that though the industry has come a long way, I have noticed that many kids still leave the reading of books within the school walls. The interest of reading for fun is still a habit we are yet to cultivate in our children. Being an upcoming children’s book writer for kids in kindergarten and early primary, it worries me that most children’s books of interest in Nigeria still remain for children in mid primary to early secondary schools. There is little or no hype around early reader books. Neither are there many competitions for writers in this genre to encourage the act (believe me, I've searched). I believe these books are equally important. I mentioned this to a friend a few days ago and he too doesn't see the need to “make noise” about it either. Well my thought is How will our children get to understand these “children’s literature books” if they NEVER learnt to read the early reader books and develop reasoning and understanding from the simple lessons found within the pictures and words in these precious books? Where would the interest develop from in the first place? Take a new born baby for example. There is NO parent that isn't ecstatic about the first steps their babies make. Those first delicate and significant wobbly steps are what started the whole “self moving” experience isn't it? I mean how will anyone ever learn to run, skip or jump so high if they never learned to walk?

... Anyway, I stumbled on this article which highlights some of the issues of children's book writing and publishing in Africa and felt I should share it with you. It’s very insightful. Drop your comments below if you have something you wish to share on this.

Problems militating against a rapid growth in writing and publishing for children in Africa include the following:

(1) The bulk of reading matters available to the African child are textbooks rather than books for pleasure and enjoyment.

(2) Most children's books are still imported. Such imported works are mostly insensitive to local culture, and unreflective of the social realities of the African child and his aspirations.

(3) Not enough African published children's books are available.

(4) If they are available the illustrations in them are either

(a) of poor quality

(b) not in full colour

(c) Do not have beautiful dust jackets.

(5) And if they are in full colour, and of good quality, they are either much too expensive or for an elitist few and well beyond the reach of most African children, especially those in the rural areas.

(6) Most serious African authors do not bother to write for children since it is not accorded the same status as writing for adults.

Africa has very little concern for written literature. Even Nigeria which is rich in award-winning authors is marked by neglect of her authors. Writers are seldom as honoured.as footballers are. Hardly any foundations exist to boost the creativity of African writers. Prizes for literature are also in short supply. Book Development Councils seem to be either non-existent or collapsing except in Ghana. In Sierra Leone and the Gambia its absence is still being bemoaned. Whereas in Nigeria where one was once set up to develop indigenous book publishing, it hardly made any impact until it was swallowed up by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council. In Africa generally adults seldom read children's books - not even parents. Compared to the over 2,000 titles published every year for children in Britain, the output in Nigeria is hardly up to 60.

In spite of the over 100 publishers in Nigeria the situation remains bleak for children's literature. This is due mainly to their textbook orientation which makes them lazily rely on a captive school market. It has been proven that if only African children had access to more books they would read outside the classroom. An illustration of this fact could be seen from the 1985 Ife Book Fair where the Children's Literature Association of Nigeria (CLAN) held a special exhibition of books

Visitors to that stand were fascinated by the colourful poster illustrations of folktales decorating the wall, the top and back of shelves. Some even wanted to buy the poster-sized illustrations made by a very gifted woman artist from the Nigerian television authority. The festive air given to the stand by the balloons decorating it along with the colourful posters attracted many children. There was the astonishing sight of three children of varying ages reading one picture book at the same time, visibly very fascinated by this picture book entitled No Bread for Eze by Ifeoma Okoye and published by Fourth Dimension in Enugu. It was one of those picture books where both story and illustrations were ideally integrated. It was about a young boy Eze who loved bread and could not eat enough of it. He wanted bread all the time. So his exasperated parents made him eat nothing but bread. Eze was at first very happy. Nobody was pressurizing him to eat nourishing food. But he soon grew tired of eating bread all the time and pleaded with his parents to give him other types of food. But they would not relent. So Eze became tired of bread and stopped eating. He grew hungry and weak and could not even play football with his friends. In the end his parents relented and Eze began to enjoy a balanced diet, having learnt that boys shall not live by bread alone. This emphasizes the importance of illustrations in children's books, for those children were fascinated not only by the story of Eze but also by the imaginative and sometimes humorously drawn pictures. If children are to acquire the reading habit, they must be given attractive books which also mean well-illustrated books. Even a two-year old baby can enjoy looking at a picture book. Picture books could indeed be expensive to some extent if one insists on printing in four colours which is ideal as could be seen in the lavishly illustrated folktale The Drum specially written for children by Chinua Achebe. But even line and wash drawings could be so well drawn that they too could be captivating.

There is also an imbalanced attention to the various ages of childhood. For far more books are being written for the middle-aged (8-12) while very young children remain largely neglected. Very few books for adolescents have been written. One is Angi Ossai's Tolulope (1979). Another is joined by Love by Joy Ikede. The Kenyan Asenath Odaga's work Jande's Ambition is about choice of career which should be a prime concern at that age. Macmillan's Pacesetter Series also appeals to young adults but their works are said to be of varying quality, featuring crime, espionage and love tangles.

There is in addition the chronic absence of children's magazines in most parts of Africa. In Sierra Leone the attempt by The Sierra Leone Writers and Illustrators to establish one did not survive its second issue. But the invaluable role they could play in inculcating the reading habit in the child because of their wide variety of subjects, the form of presentation and the fact that children love to read what their peers have written and thus start having similar creative impulses is recognized…

You can read the full article titled The Present Situation For Writing And Publishing Creative Writing For Children In Africa on http://www.cooperpublishinggroup.com/the-present-situation-for-writing-and-publishing-creative-writing-for-children-in-africa.php

Some helpful things to know about writing a Children's book.

To be honest, before I wrote my first children's book, I really had no idea which age group I was writing for or  how I was going to get it published! I hadn't the foggiest idea how to get people to hear about my books. Coming to think of it, there was a whole bunch of stuff I didn't quite know about getting a book out... I simply wrote just because I had this burning desire to say something to kids. Problem was once I finished, I couldn't clearly define who my "real" target audience was! Like that wasn't enough, I didn't know what I could do to get the word out there that my books exist. Well here's what Writing Children's Books for Dummies by Lisa Rojany Buccieri, Peter Economy has to say about that! 

Let's start with some cost effective ways you can promote your books. Mind you, there are more methods to consider, but here's the basic that will surely get you going in the right direction:

How to Promote Your Children's Book

After you've written a children's book, you have to sell it — you didn't spend all that time and effort just to entertain yourself, did you? Try to accomplish one of the following tasks each week to help your labor of love blossom to life in the marketplace:

• Add new content weekly to your website or blog to keep it fresh.
• Explore live readings in bookstores, schools, or libraries.
• Submit your book for an award or prize—or ask the publisher to do so.
• Consider creating a trailer for your book and an interview with yourself to post on YouTube.
• Use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media to keep fans updated on professional news related to your book or your writing (or illustrating).

For your info, here are some age ranges your children's book can fit into. 

Age Levels for Children's Books

If you're writing a children's book, it pays to be familiar with how publishers classify them. Publishers generally assign age groups for readers of various formats as set out in the following list:

• Board books: Newborn to age 3
• Picture books: Ages 3–8
• Coloring and activity (C&A) books: Ages 3–8
• Novelty books: Ages 3 and up, depending on content
• Early, leveled readers: Ages 5–9
• First chapter books: Ages 6–9 or 7–10
• Middle-grade books: Ages 8–12
• Young adult (YA) novels: Ages 12 and up or 14 and up

It's okay to veer off a year or so in either direction when assigning a target audience age range to your work

Hope this was helpful. Learn the differences and stay true to your work!! 

Good Luck & Happy writing!! 


You can get tons of helpful tips on this link: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/writing-childrens-books-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

Lulu's Colouring Story Book Series - Lulu & The Study Crew and Lulu & The Big Bad Boy

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.357527234351599.1073741829.114568018647523&type=1

Lulu & The Study Crew and Lulu & The Big Bad Boy are the 1st and 2nd books of the Lulu's Colouring Story Book Series. It centers around 2 little Nigerian school girls, Lulu and her best friend Ify. These very easy to read books are packed with just 1 simple lesson to learn. It's DOUBLE the fun for kids cause not only can the kids get to interpret the books by colouring in the pictures and giving each book their own personal "look and feel"; the entire book rhymes!

Lulu & The Study Crew teaches kids to always bring out their very best in everything they do while Lulu & The Big Bad Boy centers on the pressures and effects of peer pressure. Each book contains a simple note to ALL kids as well as a note to ALL Parents & Guardians giving a brief introduction of what the book is about and it's intent. At the end of each story is another section called "Lulu & Crew Says..." This is a collection of all the very important quotes or messages within the book that each kid should try to memorize and live by.

Written by Cynthia Osunwoke, owner of an upcoming and very promising Children's Event Company called Lulu's Playpen Services, is targeted at children from the ages of 2-8 years. They are currently available as ebooks which can be printed out for kids to colour in. Hard copy is on demand. For more information on how to get your copies for your kids now, send your emails to cynthia@lulusplaypen.com.