PERSONAL STORIES
She is not reading about a hero. She is the hero.
There is a particular quiet that arrives when a child realises the book is about them. It is worth the ten minutes.
No card, no password. One book to keep, whatever you decide after.
A cast you build once
Children, friends, family members, pets, invented characters, and the places that matter: her bedroom, the school gate, grandma's garden. Save them once and they are available to every story afterwards, looking and behaving the same each time.
Written for an age, not shortened to fit one
A story for a three year old and a story for a ten year old are different in sentence length, vocabulary, how much happens per page, how frightening the middle is allowed to get, and how many pictures there are. Set the age and all of that moves together. Retell the same story for an older child later and both versions live on the shelf, in age order.
Seven languages, written not translated
English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Polish. A story asked for in Dutch is written in Dutch from the start, so the jokes and the rhythm are the language's own rather than an English book wearing a coat.
Art styles that set the mood
Watercolour, storybook ink, bold and bright, and others. Pick one per book, or set a family favourite so the shelf looks like a set.
What this is not
The characters are inspired by your descriptions and photos rather than being portraits. Your child will recognise herself in the book, but it is an illustration of a girl like her, not a drawing of her face. That is deliberate: face-matching a child raises consent questions we would rather not answer badly.
Tonight's story could have her name in it
It takes about ten minutes to make the first one, and you keep it whether or not you ever pay us a cent.
No card, no password. One book to keep, whatever you decide after.