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Be Held – The BE Books Series of personalised adventure books for children

Our Story

We’re just a couple of ordinary Dads trying to create extraordinary stories that support parents, inspire children and empower families.

We're Dave and James. Welcome to our page! Our new company was the result of a chance meeting 3 years ago working as two advertising creatives. Two problem solvers. Two craftsmen. But most of all, two parents.

We shared concerns about raising our children – a motley crew that ranged from 3 to 20 years old at the time. This led to discussions around the many challenges facing families today.

As parents working long hours, we’d often only make it home in time to read a bedtime story. We suddenly realised the true value of this timeless ritual and knew these meaningful moments could be made to matter more…

Be Held™ was born!

With our combined empathy from opposite ends of the parenting journey we’ve created a fresh approach. Personalisation with purpose to deliver engaging and transformative storytelling. Gently tackling ongoing societal issues like screen-time, diversity and well-being. We call it Parenting in Disguise.

Be Held - BE Open - Personalised BookBe Held - Personalised Books - Library Shelf - BE BooksDave Woods - James Butterworth - Be Held Co Founders - Personalised Books
Be Held - Personalised Books - Reading Moment

Introducing the BE Books™

Our launch series explores a variety of relevant values encouraging children to be good, be brave, be safe, be independent, be open, and believe in themselves.

Our thought-provoking stories activate a child’s understanding of their developing character. They’ll journey to thrilling new worlds, discover hidden life-lessons and return better informed to everyday life.

When read with a child, these personalised morality tales achieve deeper levels of engagement, better equipping time-poor parents to open dialogue with children around the pain points they'll experience in everyday life.

You can customise the ‘hero’ character by choosing their gender, name, what they look like and even if they wear glasses! A personalised dedication can also be added at the beginning of the book.

Our ‘Books for Life’ promise goes beyond our books...

We created Be Held as a force for good – both for our readers and young people of the world whose childhoods, for many reasons, have fallen on stony ground. That's why we proudly support Save the Children. When you buy from us, you support our mission to put the power of positive change in every child’s hands.

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Reviews

  • "We were given Be Held books for my two girls of 4 and 6 years. Reading with them at bedtime they absolutely love the brightly coloured illustrations, the fact these stories are about them, and requested we read the books night after night – which has never happened before. We are amazed how engaged they are with the stories and positive learnings woven into them. So much so, they play together in character as Lady Cleo the Brave and Detective Mia!"
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    Marguerite

  • "I bought 'BE Safe' for my son Austin (5) because he rushes around everywhere not thinking about the consequences. He absolutely loves his story and insisted we read it everyday in the first week. On day 3, I reached out to stop him crossing a road. He said "Don't worry daddy, Detective Austin looks left, looks right, looks left again". Quoting his own story is living proof these books work exactly as intended. Just one of many little lessons in the book... I'm so impressed."
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    Miles

  • "I have ordered many personalised books in the past for nieces and nephews which include their name, but I loved the fact Be Held personalise the main character too. Receiving BE Open, the first thing I noticed was the superb quality of the pages, other brands have been very thin and flimsy. We really enjoy reading this book to our daughter (aged 1). The pages are colourful and attractive for her and the overall lesson of the book was wonderful. One I feel very strongly about her learning."
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    Sue

  • "We bought BE Open for our two year old Astronaut Thomas and we all love it. It’s super quality thickish paper which is definitely Thomas proof. We are enjoying the story and following mr Branson’s space flight he was hooked so it was perfect timing. We’ve not had any personalised books before so it’s gone down really well that it’s all about him. The illustrations are so great! Nice and big and varied to engage him too. We will definitely be adding another BE Book to the library at home."
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    Amy

Press Comments

"BE Books are not your typical children’s stories. They are completely customisable, with a range of themes and, uniquely, a choice of values including bravery, safety, openness, independence and more. "
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Feb 2022

"When read with a child these books create a focused window of learning and meaningful moments between parents and children."
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Nov 2021

"8 Must-Read Books That Contain Excellent Moral Stories"
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Sep 2021

"The books use themes such as magic, space, exploring and pirates. Children take centre stage in wish-fulfilment adventures inspired by real-world events with issues such as well being and diversity covered."
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Sep 2021

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Returns Address

Be Held, Unit 2C, Berristow Lane, South Normanton, Alfreton, Derbyshire, DE55 2FH, GB

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