A NEW mum who penned her debut book during lockdown has bagged the top spot on Amazon’s chart of baby books.

Amy Laver, from Basildon, gave birth during the pandemic and has spent the bulk of her lockdown pregnancy writing and re-writing her first children’s picturebook.

The 38-year-old used her experiences before and after her daughter Harley’s arrival in September to create the book, which looks at the pandemic through the eyes of a child.

Lockdown Baby - illustrated by her niece Evie Brooks - touches on bringing a little one into the world of wearing face masks in supermarkets and not being able to meet family members.

Echo:

Evie

The book has now reached number one in Amazon’s baby charts.

The mum-of-three said: “The noticeable differences from having my first daughter to the second during the pandemic were obvious.

“No guests visiting, no meeting family members, staying home except to exercise and trying to find things to occupy us whilst at home. These are all things I tried to cover in the book.

“My daughter actually hates face masks, even though that’s all she’s ever known.

“Lockdown Baby doesn’t really have a message as such, it is mainly just an ordinary mum explaining to her child why we are restricted.”

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The nursery nurse admits the success of Lockdown Baby has taken her by surprise.

However, Amy doesn’t plan to continue writing.

Echo:

Amy

She said: “I had never written more than a letter or diary entry before, so this was a new experience for me.

“My inspiration to write a children’s book came from a beautiful picture that my sister sent me of a forest scene, drawn by my 13-year-old incredibly talented niece.

“I commented that it looked like it belonged in a picture book, and my partner suggested I should write one and ask Evie to illustrate it, as a way of encouraging her talent.

“I decided on the story of Lockdown Baby as this has mainly been my life since the start of the pandemic and we thought it would be a nice keepsake of such an extraordinary time for our daughter when she’s older.

“Initially, we were going to get a few copies made, just for us to keep and give to our families. Once we had shown a few people and were encouraged to publish it, we decided to go ahead a give it a go.”