#LuluJrDotCom Book Publishing Kit #Review

     One of my favorite parts of being a parent is seeing all the amazing talents that the kids have and what they do with them.  It's mind boggling when you think about it.  As a parent, you may have no talent whatsoever in an area that your child excels in.  Or it could be that you don't really have an interest in it, but your child is obsessed.  For instance, Boogie, although still very young, is super outgoing.  He loves chatting up the ladies at the beach and making friends with all the big boys.  He can play with anyone.  I know this came from his father, but it's crazy to think that MY child is so unlike me that way.  My biggest struggle is a piece of cake to him.

      The kids all mostly take after me.  They all for the most part like to sing, draw, and write.  Maybe that's just a kid thing, but all my kids are creative that way.  It's always been a dream of mine to write a book and I know that my kids as well like to create books.  When I got the My Comic Book Kit from LuLu Jr. I actually intended, selfishly I might add, to use it myself.  My actual main reason for doing so was to prevent arguing because I knew all the kids would want it.  My second reason being that I had a book that I had written years ago that my mother wants me to print for the library the next town over.

     But alas, I've decided that we can all share it and each create a short comic style story and our comic book will just have "chapters".
     So here is how the whole thing works:

     You go to their site and buy one of their story making kits, which I think is pretty inexpensive compared to other things I have seen similar to it, this one is for comics.  Then when you get it in the mail, you follow the directions and fill the templates with your own personal story.  When you are done, you return it in the prepaid envelope and wait.  They will print your book for no extra fee, and ship it back to you.

     I think that's important.  And you will find throughout most of my product testing that I really do put an emphasis on how much things cost and whether there are hidden charges.  It's important to me because I don't have money to blow, so I want to be sure that I'm not being duped into spending money that I don't have.  But with Lulu Jr, the printing of the book is paid for when you purchase the kit.  You don't have to worry about buying it for your kids just to take so long saving the money for it to be printed that it gets ruined or lost in the meantime.  You can ship it the same day it's finished, just shove it in your mailbox and lift the flag!

     The kit itself contains everything you need.  It has all the typical things that you would think it would have.  It has paper and markers, pen, pencil, sharpener and eraser.  But it also has something pretty cool.  It has a booklet, much like the one that you would receive back, filled with all kinds of info and ideas to get you started.  The color, inside and out, is very nice and you can tell that a comic book made by your kids would look pretty fabulous printed up that way.

     The book takes you through all kind of different artwork types, panel types, ways to show time change or location change and also how to make certain bubbles or icons depict different types of communication or actions.  I think this guiding process is a pretty nice encouragement for kids who aren't sure what to do or where to go next.  It definitely helped me when I was trying to figure out how to do the panels.
     I love this whole thing, from the kit to the outcome, it's a super cute gift idea for any young writer.  I'll definitely be keeping it in mind for future birthdays and Christmases.  What do you think?  Anyone in your family dream of being a writer?
     To learn more, check out Lulu Jr on Facebook, Twitter, and on their website.

Except for the product(s) given to me for the purpose of reviewing, I received no compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.