Turn your child's story into a real book.
Your child makes up the story — the hero, the friend, the place, the silly sound — in a free story maker in your browser. It comes back as an 8×8 hardcover with their name on the cover as the author, printed to order and posted to you.
Free to make. $39.99 for the hardcover, $12.99 for the same book as a PDF. About a week to ten days in the US.
How it works
- They make the story. Open the story maker and your child taps pictures to pick a hero, a friend, a place, a special thing, a food, a colour and a silly sound. The story writes itself around those choices, every page gets its own picture, and it reads itself aloud with the words lighting up as they are said. This part is free and there is no account.
- You get a code. At the end of the story a grown-up taps Make it a real book, types the
author's first name and age, and gets a code like
OUP-AB12CD. - You order the book. Choose hardcover or PDF, paste the code into the order, and check out.
- We print that exact story. Not a template with a name dropped in — their hero, their place, their pictures, at the reading level they chose.
What actually arrives
An 8×8 inch hardcover with a matte cover and thick silk pages, 36 to 38 pages in total. Their story runs 12 to 13 illustrated pages, with written by and your child's name on the front.
Around the story there is the part that makes it theirs rather than just a printout:
- A this book belongs to page and a made-for-you page
- An About the Author page
- Talk-about-it questions for reading together
- A tell it back page, where they retell the story in their own words
- Sight words to find and colour, and pages to draw in
The PDF version is the same book, sent through Etsy messages within 24 hours. Nothing is posted, so it works when the hardcover would not arrive in time.
Cost and timing
| Making the story | Free, in a browser, no account |
|---|---|
| Hardcover | $39.99, free shipping in the US |
| $12.99, sent within 24 hours | |
| Printing | About 3 to 5 days — each book is made when you order it |
| Post | About 2 to 5 days, US only for now |
Printed and posted by Gelato, a print partner with presses in the US, so the book is made near where it is going rather than shipped across the world.
Questions parents ask
Does my child need to be able to write?
No. Nothing is typed. They tap pictures to choose a hero, a friend, a place, a special thing, a food, a colour and a silly sound, and the story is built around those picks. It works for a child who cannot read yet, because it reads itself out loud.
What age is it for?
It is built for around five. Younger children enjoy picking and listening; older ones read along at the harder of the three reading levels. There is nothing to lose and nothing to get wrong.
Do I need an account?
No, and there is nothing to install. The story maker runs in a browser on a phone, tablet or laptop. Stories, stickers and settings stay on that device.
How do you know which story to print?
When a story finishes, a grown-up taps "Make it a real book" and gets a code that looks like OUP-AB12CD. You type that code into the order. It points at the exact story your child made, so what gets printed is their hero, their place and their pictures, page for page.
What if I lose the code?
Message us with your child’s name and roughly what the story was about and we will find it. Codes are kept for a year.
Can I make one for more than one child?
Yes. Each story gets its own code, so two children can each make their own and each get their own book with their own name on the cover.
Where do the pictures come from?
The characters, places and props come from one illustration library in a single style, and a person chose, cleaned up and prepared every one for print before it went in. Nothing new appears while your child is playing, so the dragon on page eight is the same dragon as on page one and nothing unexpected ever shows up.
Can I return it?
Because the book is made for one child and nobody else, it cannot be resold, so there are no returns or exchanges. If it turns up damaged or misprinted, tell us and we will put it right.
Let them make one and see
Making a story costs nothing and takes about ten minutes. Decide about the book afterwards, once you have read theirs.
Make a story — free