Press Releases

Capture World Cup Fever with Little Heroes Personalized Children's Books 

Little Heroes captures World Cup fever, with their latest personalized soccer book, The Golden Goal. Designed with a top children’s soccer program, parents can make a unique children’s book where their child scores the winning championship goal.

Every four years, billions of people worldwide are mesmerized by the simple act of a ball being kicked back and forth between competing teams. Little Heroes Personalized Children's Books captures the 2010 World Cup fever, with their latest personalized soccer book, The Golden Goal. Designed with Little Kickers, a leading children's soccer program in the UK, parents can create a unique children's book featuring their child scoring the winning goal of the championship for their favorite soccer team. 

The Golden Goal builds on Little Heroes' ability to personalize stories and illustrations to look like your child, allowing parents to choose a team name and create the unique soccer uniform of their child’s favorite team! Whether it's the Three Lions of England or the Azzuri of Italy, the Golden Goal can be personalized to feature your child in the exact team uniforms as the national teams competing in the World Cup this year.

"Children, including my own, need very little encouragement to kick a ball about," says Christine Stanchus, owner and founder of Little Kickers. "But as they get older and learn to read, they are often less enthusiastic. This all changes when the book is all about them, their favorite team and sport!"

The Golden Goal is also the perfect way to keep kids reading during the school break. "Teachers find in September, when kids come back from vacation, there’s often a drop in reading and comprehension levels," says Alla Ostrovsky, Little Heroes Educational Expert with 25 years of teaching experience. "Young children need to keep reading, or be read to, throughout summer to avoid this happening." 

Little Heroes Introduces Personalized Children's Books in English, Spanish and French

Publisher launches books to meet growing consumer demand for multilingual educational resources

Little Heroes Publishing, a provider of multilingual personalized children's books, today announced the availability of its books in English, Spanish and French. The increasing amount of families speaking more than one language at home and the rise in popularity of foreign language immersion school programs has prompted parents to look for alternative methods of fostering their children’s multilingual education. The new language resources announced today are in direct response to this increasing consumer demand for multilingual educational books.

"Parents have been asking us to create a more diverse product line, one that meets the changing demographics of our schools," said Gillian FitzGerald, VP of Marketing at Little Heroes. "Many parents are concerned with the low literacy rates of students whose home language isn't English. Others are looking for more language learning support for their kids living in an increasingly multicultural society."

Low literacy rates amongst Hispanic students

Recent US Department of Education and Census Bureau studies reveal that Hispanic students, across all ages, score below the national average for reading  and have the highest high school dropout rates of up to 20%, 12% above the US mean. "These literacy gaps start young, as early as kindergarten, and widen up to 12th grade," says FitzGerald, citing further research. With over 55 million people in the US speaking languages other than English, 62% of which are Spanish speaking, there is a growing need for multilingual books from Hispanic parents.

Growing popularity of language immersion programs

Foreign language immersion programs, where students learn school subjects in another language, are also on the rise. Over 8% of US elementary schools now offer language immersion programs, with more than 550 elementary and high school programs registered nationwide. Studies conducted have shown that young children brought up in bilingual school settings naturally develop educational advantages in math, visual problem solving and analytics.

Benefits of personalized books

With the summer break approaching, Alla Ostrovsky, Little Heroes Educational Expert with 25 years of teaching experience, fears that some of the reading gains students achieved during the school year will be lost. "Young children need to keep reading, or be read to, throughout summer. We find that in September, when they come back from vacation, there's often a drop in reading and comprehension levels." According to Ostrovsky, literacy research has shown that the earlier children read, or are read to, the better their lifetime literacy and math ability. "Personalized books offer a benefit over traditional books. They grab children's attention and help build self-esteem because they are the star of the show."

Changes in reading patterns

While parents and teachers alike wish young students would embrace reading books more, Little Heroes understands that technology has fundamentally changed the way people today consume content, especially children. "It's no secret that it's harder to get kids today to read for pleasure," says FitzGerald. "When you’re competing with video games and the infinite distractions of TV or Internet, reading has to be a more engaging and relevant experience."

Little Heroes recognized this trend early on, making all their books available in ebook format, which are readable on laptops, iPhones or any hand-held device. "This summer, the Little Heroes reading experience will become even richer with a new iPad application," says FitzGerald. "Reading can be fun – it should be!"

Little Heroes Personalized Books Bridge Cultural Divides

Children’s books reflecting unique culture and language are no longer the privilege of a special few.

Little Heroes Publishing increased its diverse offerings by introducing French and Spanish versions of its popular personalized children's books. The launch into other languages allows children worldwide to enjoy books in their home language and featuring characters that resemble their culture. But it's also a novel way to help your child learn another language.

Multilingual benefits

According to Educational Consultant for the publisher, Alla Ostrovsky, "Personalized books grab children's attention, helping build their self-esteem. The impact is greater when the hero looks like the child and speaks the same language.

The benefits don’t stop there. Parents and teachers trying to help their kids learn a different language can also use these personalized books. "In a single language country, it's not easy to find multilingual books, especially children's books," says Ostrovsky.

Beyond the mass-market

In the spirit of the age-old profit equation, children's books are usually produced in the languages and ethnic backgrounds of the mainstream market. This means minority language groups and ethnicities are not often catered for, often to the dismay of parents.

"One excited South African customer told us how finally his child could have books where the hero looked like him!" said Gillian FitzGerald, Head of LittleHeroes.com Marketing. "It made a huge difference to his son, who wanted to read these books again and again."

By allowing people to create their own book, any bias that may filter through when an author or illustrator creates a book, is removed. "Technology has opened up many processes that were once walled gardens," said FitzGerald. "Creating children's books is no longer restricted to a handful of publishers or writers. Rather, with services like LittleHeroes.com, anybody can create a children's book unique to their child's needs."

Little Heroes Personalized Children's Books Goes Green

In time where environmental sustainability and responsibility sits top of mind with consumers, Little Heroes Publishing's Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification comes as a gold star.

Little Heroes recieved the 'green' stamp of approval when the personalized childrens book publisher became certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) this week.

"We are aware of the impact our actions have the world around us. Which is why our printing operation embraces a green culture from using FSC approved paper, low emission inks and recycing toners and waste paper," said Gillian FitzGerald, Marketing Director of Little Heroes.

According to a study by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, approximately 70% of the world’s paper supply, is not made from timber harvested at tree farms but from forest-harvested timber, from regions with ecologically valuable, biologically diverse habitat. This represents a staggering amount of rich ecosystems being converted into tree plantations, with negative consequences for the environment.

The FSC is a non-profit, international membership organization that develops standards and certifies that wood harvesting is done within their environmentally conscious standards from responsibility managed forests. Using paper from sustainable forests helps reduce carbon footprint.

FSC certified paper products can be identified by the FSC certification logo.

Parents: Top Tips on Engaging Your Child in Reading This Holiday Season

Gift giving at Christmas for children tends to be all about the toys. But the greatest gift a parent can give a child is the time they spend with them.

And what better way to spend time with your child then by reading with them.  According to Educational Consultant for personalized children's books publisher, LittleHeroes.com, Alla Ostrovsky, "Children that are exposed to reading, language and sounds at an early age tend to do better at school. And reading aloud along with parents' involvement aids in language development and a solid base for literacy."

Here are LittleHeroes.com top tips on how to develop the love of reading in children:

1. Use variety for interest. Read lots of different stories, poems and rhymes with your child. Guide your finger across the words to help your child follow along.

2. Encourage participation. Let them ask questions about the story or pictures. Take time to stop and talk about the tale. And when you read a familiar book, let the child finish the phrase. This will encourage them to become more active in the story.

3. Make it fun! Make reading a time to look forward to. If it isn't fun, your child won't enjoy it. Use different voices for characters and even introduce sound effects. Never underestimate the value your child places on your one-on-one time together.

4. Engage your child in the story. A good way to engage them is through personalized children's books. These are books that tailor the story to include the child's name and real references to their family and friends. The illustrations can also be personalized to resemble the child. You can imagine how excited children get when they see themselves in the story. They will want to read it again and again.

5. Be a good reading role model. The more often your children see you reading, the more they will think about reading as an activity.

6. Read often! Build reading into a daily routine. Whether its bedtime, weekends, or part of 'story hour' at school or daycare, ensure that the program, caregiver or you, slot in a time to read.

Little Heroes Launches The First Personalized Children’s eBooks

New Little Heroes children's eBooks - an industry first - offer an economic alternative to expensive custom illustrated children's book.

Little Heroes Publishing launched its new range of personalized children's eBooks today, a first in the children's publishing industry. The eBooks offer an inexpensive solution to higher-priced custom illustrated books, tapping into a growing market trend.

"We are using technology to make personalized books available to people who otherwise may not afford it," said Gillian FitzGerald, Head of Marketing for Little Heroes. "Personalized books simply cost more than standard books because each book is unique."

Personalizing picture books is a complex process as both the story and the illustrations are customized.  This requires each book to be printed individually, which eliminates the savings of large, non-custom print runs.

"The eBook format is more convenient for many people, particularly for people who commute or travel a lot," said FitzGerald.  "It's ideal for vacations as it doesn't take up much space."  EBook growth reached triple digits this year, far outstripping growth of traditional books.

"The book still looks the same.  You still pick your eyes, hair and skin tone so illustrations look just like your child," said FitzGerald.  "The only difference is that you now read the book online...and you pay a lot less!"

Little Heroes eBooks come in PDF format and can be read using any freely available PDF viewer or mobile devices, such as the iPhone.

New Personalized Kids Book Website Launches on International Literacy Day

Reading matters. Period. To succeed in school, your child needs to learn to read - and well. But this can prove a tricky task.

Research from British Medical Journal and Statistics Canada shows that reading impacts a child's later literacy level, a cornerstone to educational success. The more a child reads, or is read to, the greater his success in learning to read and write. Unfortunately, the opposite also applies, potentially hindering progress throughout school years.

Getting a child to read can be difficult. With the bewildering array of entertainmentalternatives such as TV, Internet and video games, reading is often found to be second best, a reality reflected in low literacy levels today.

Toronto based Little Heroes Publishing has launched a unique solution to help children, aged 3-10 years, develop a love for reading.

Imagine a technology that allows you to create a personalized children's book where you can:

• Tailor the story to feature family, friends and your child as the hero;
• Pick eyes, hair and skin tone so illustrations look just like your child.

Imagine a carefully crafted adventure with challenging words and valuable life lessons that build strong literacy, self-esteem and social skills. And imagine all that, conveniently online, where you easily create your book and have it printed and shipped direct to you.

Hearing and seeing themselves as the story’s hero captures children’s imagination and makes reading much more fun.  The adventure's themes are taken to heart as they, as the hero, experience them 'first hand'.

Reading stories together also builds strong emotional bonds, fostering your child's security and self-esteem.  It offers endless opportunities for you to further educate and stimulate your child.  Which is why Little Heroes also offers helpful advice, informative articles and fun activities to help parents alike deepen their child’s development.