Peekado Review – Book Subscription Box For Kids 0-7!
Lockdown life has me steaming through our storybooks night in, day out. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is doing nothing for my waistline and I’m slowly going mad reading Green Eggs and Ham. But at the same time, there’s no better time to invest in a local, homegrown business like Peekado, than now. And their awesome Book Subscription Boxes put an end to storytime ‘groundhog day’. Curious? Read on to learn more and see how we got on with our trial subscription:
What is Peekado?
Peekado is a monthly book subscription service for children aged 0-7years of age. Peekado is the first subscription book service for children in the UAE! In addition to monthly subscriptions, Peekado also offer seasonal and themed boxes and have recently launched their ‘together at home’ box, which includes three (age-appropriate books) and three activity kits all for just AED 149! The company is a locally-based, homegrown brand, set up by a mother of one who saw a need for such a service in the UAE after having her own child and experiencing how he responded to her reading him stories. Founder Kalyani Soni recalls:
Reading has always been so important to me & when I became a mother, I felt compelled to share this passion with my son. But I could never have imagined what followed: I saw how it soothed him to hear me read his stories, captured his attention, introduce new ideas and it has helped him to work through his emotions. As I looked further into the benefits of early reading, I felt compelled to do create something obtainable
Our Experience with Peekado
We were lucky enough to review Peekado’s premium ‘Bookkeeper’ package. This included monthly deliveries of 3 theme-based curated boxes based on my son’s age and preferences.
Before ordering our boxes, we completed a short questionnaire over email to give Peekado a sense of our child’s book genre preferences. Once completed, the Peekado team got to curating our son Kai’s books and our first box was quickly received after a slight delay and delivery dates confusion, but Peekado were responsive and fast to resolve it.
Throughout our 3-month trial, we were kept up to date with a friendly and colourful newsletter via email. Each one highlighted our book choices including a brief overview of each book as well as tips on how to maximise our child’s development from them. And when the boxes arrived, each one included a printed note with prompts and tips on fun ways to interact with Kai when reading the stories.
Our first box was received in October. Being the month of Halloween, our box explored the theme of ‘Fears’ through lovable ‘monster’ characters in spooky stories. My son particularly loved the ‘Gruffalo’ book. Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s The Gruffalo has become a bestselling phenomenon across the world. The award-winning rhyming story of a mouse and a monster is now a modern classic and certainly left Kai enthralled and enchanted.
Our November box explored the topic of ‘Seasonal Changes’ – familiarising kids with the changes in nature around them and encouraging an early connection with our planet. We also received some fun animal-themed books, as Kai adores his furry friends.
For December, we received Christmas and wintery themed books which Kai loved! Especially the book about Santa and his reindeers.
The Verdict
Being a big fan of reading to my child, I love this concept! I also love how Peekado pay attention to detail and often include little surprises for the kids in the monthly boxes. Yes, you can pop to your local bookstore and buy books yourself, but for one, you’ll probably spend more money than the subscription costs and secondly, you won’t receive the support that Peekado gives to establish such a strong bond through reading. Also, for busy parents, having a specialist curate awesome books on a monthly basis for our children and deliver them straight to your door is not only convenient, but it’s also a bargain. To see your little one excitedly open up the box that’s especially for them and look forward to new books each month is a privilege that Peekado’s Monthly Subscription Boxes affords you with very little effort and big reward.
How can you subscribe?
To start your very own subscription with Peekado, or to order a one-off box as a trial or even as a gift for a loved one (perfect quarantine birthday present!), simply visit: https://peekado.com/subscription-packages/. Subscriptions start from as little as 99aed per month for their ‘Story Swapper’ option, where you read the books and return them. To be honest, I was wary about opting for this as I know my son gets attached to books, and I wouldn’t trust that they’d be returned in the best condition… you know how 3 year old’s can be. But this could be a great option for a sustainably conscious mum of an older child. Personally, preference remains with the ‘Bookkeeper’ subscription starting from 149AED per month.
