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CAST AND AGE

Their people, at their age, in their language

Save the cast once, set the age, pick a language and a style. Every book after that starts from there, whichever kind of story it is.

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No card, no password. One book to keep, whatever you decide after.

Rosie and Lucas stand in a wet street at dusk in their raincoats and wellies, Comet beside them, the harbour lights glowing behind.

  • 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.

Reference sheet for Rosie: front, side and back views in her yellow raincoat and red wellies.Reference sheet for Lucas: front, side and back views in his green coat, striped jumper and blue wellies.Reference sheet for Comet: a small sand-coloured terrier with one ear up, from the front, the side and behind.
Reference sheets for Rosie, Lucas and Comet, drawn before any page of their book.
The moment they find the nest, as drawn for a 3 year old.

Age 3 · 12 words

Cheep. Cheep. A small bird sits in the lamp. Three warm eggs.

The moment they find the nest, as drawn for a 6 year old.

Age 6 · 95 words

A wren, no bigger than Lucas's fist, hopped along the rail and scolded the lot of them.

"Can you mend it?" said Rosie.

"In one minute," said Grandad. "But the nest comes out first, and the eggs with it, and she'd never come back to them." He looked at the wren. The wren looked at him. "There it is. The light needs that box. She needs that box."

"She was here first," said Rosie.

"She was," said Grandad. "And Bram's still out there."

Nobody had an answer. The water slapped the pier, patient as anything.

The moment they find the nest, as drawn for a 9 year old.

Age 9 · 214 words

Grandad Wim lifted Lucas up under the arms so that he could see, and Lucas looked for a long time without saying a single word, and then nodded once, like a man agreeing to something.

'Wagtail,' said Grandad Wim, setting him down. 'They'll nest anywhere. Gutters. Tractors. I had one in the pilot hut once, in a boot.' He rubbed his stubble. 'Warm box with a lamp in it and a hole in the corner. If I were a bird I'd have moved in too.'

'She's sitting on eggs,' said Rosie.

'She is.'

'So we can't take it out.'

'No,' said Grandad Wim. 'We cannot.'

'But the light has to work. You said. You said it's for the person who can't see anything.'

'I did say that.'

Rosie looked at her grandfather and understood that he was not going to tell her the answer, possibly because he didn't have one, and possibly because he had decided she was the sort of person who ought to be given a go.

From inside the green glass came a small, cross, scuffling noise, as if the bird had heard the entire conversation and had opinions.

Down on the stones, Comet's left ear unfolded itself and stood straight up, pointing out past the harbour mouth, into the dark.

One moment of the harbour book, the nest in the lamp, written for a 3, a 6 and a 9 year old. Same story, same family; the length, the words and the pictures change with the reader.
A phone showing page one of the harbour book being read aloud, the sentence being read highlighted and the pause button lit.Een telefoon met bladzijde één van het havenboek die wordt voorgelezen, de zin die klinkt gemarkeerd en de pauzeknop aan.Ein Handy mit Seite eins des Hafenbuchs, die gerade vorgelesen wird, der gesprochene Satz hervorgehoben und die Pausetaste an.
Page one of the harbour book in the reader, in English, Dutch and German: the same picture, three texts, each read aloud in its own language.
The same moment as a watercolour page: the girl mid-jump above the splash, her mum laughing in the water, her brother and the dog beside the cool box on the jetty.The same moment as a paper-cut collage: layered paper shapes for the jetty, the trees and the water, the girl mid-jump and her mum laughing below.The same moment as a bright cartoon: clean outlines and clear colours, the girl mid-jump, her mum in the lake, her brother and the dog on the jetty.
One page in three of the art styles you can choose: watercolour, paper-cut and cartoon. Same family, same moment, the style is yours to pick.

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.

Features

Tonight's story could have your child 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.

Make your first book, free

No card, no password. One book to keep, whatever you decide after.