made just for them
Finally, a storybook that looks like your family.
Personalized hardcover picture books for ages 3 to 8, drawn from your photos of the people your child loves. Made for bedtime, and for keeping.
The problem
Most books have one kind of family.
Kids notice who is in the pictures. Two dads, a grandma who is raising them, hearing aids, a wheelchair: most shelves have none of it. So we draw the family you actually have.
of children’s books have a disabled main or supporting character.Cooperative Children’s Book Center, 2024
Type a name and watch the spine.
How it works
Three steps, and you approve each one.
1Add your people
A few everyday photos of each person, and the pet. Tell us about the glasses, the hearing aids, the missing tooth.
Amara approved2Meet your cast
We draw each person as a character, and you approve every one before a single page is painted.
3Get your book
See the whole book in your browser, change what you want, then we print a real hardcover.
Amara is made up, to show the steps. We never show a customer’s photos, and yours are deleted 30 days after you approve your cast.
The whole family
Everyone who makes your family yours.
Up to 6 people and pets in one book, each drawn from their own photos. Tell us about the devices and the details, and we draw them faithfully.
Two dads, and one very good swing.WatercolorPut yours in a story: Two dads, and one very good swing. 
The grandma who is raising them.GouachePut yours in a story: The grandma who is raising them. 
Blue hearing aids, drawn as they are.Ink and washPut yours in a story: Blue hearing aids, drawn as they are. 
Her purple chair, and her top speed.Modern flatPut yours in a story: Her purple chair, and her top speed. 
Twins, and which one wears glasses.WatercolorPut yours in a story: Twins, and which one wears glasses. 
The dog with three legs and no idea.GouachePut yours in a story: The dog with three legs and no idea.
Story shelf
Pick a story. We put your family in it.
Pick a style
Same family, four ways to paint it.
Every book comes in four styles. Tap one to see the campfire from our sample book, painted in each.
Custom stories add two more: clay and felt.
Look inside
Turn the pages. Can you find Pepper?
Every book hides the family pet in every picture. Pepper is a scruffy dog with one floppy ear. Drag a page to turn it.
Our First Camping Trip
Grandpa Luis had a list. It was very old and very folded.
“Tent. Flashlight. Marshmallows,” he read. “The same list I made when your mom was six.”
Amara was six. Amara had a list too. It said: PEPPER.
“Pepper is staying with the neighbors,” said Mom. The duffel bag said nothing. The duffel bag wiggled.
The road went up and up and around and around, until the trees stepped back, and there it was: a lake as shiny as a spoon.
“Our lake,” said Mom, the way you say the name of an old friend.
The duffel bag unzipped itself. “PEPPER!” said everybody.
Pepper said nothing, which is how you know he planned it.
Grandpa held up a tent pole. “Watch me, then you try.” Mom watched. Amara watched. Pepper watched.
The pole bent. The tent flopped. And Grandpa ended up underneath it, wearing it like a very big orange hat.
Then Mom picked up the pole. “Watch me, then you try,” she said, exactly like Grandpa. And the tent went up.
Grandpa looked surprised, then proud, then like he had meant to let her do it all along.
At the water, Grandpa found a flat stone. “Watch me, then you try.”
Skip, skip, skip, skip. Amara’s stone went plunk. And plunk. And plonk, which is worse.
“That is exactly how your mom started,” said Grandpa.
“Plonk?” “Plonk. Every summer. Until one summer, it was not.”
On the trail, Mom showed Amara how Grandpa taught her to look close: a fern curled up like a snail, the footprints of a very small deer, and the biggest pinecone in the world.
Pepper found the biggest stick. He was very proud of it.
At night the fire crackled and popped. Mom told the story of her very first marshmallow. It caught fire. Then Amara’s caught fire too.
Grandpa blew it out with one big puff, the same way he did for Mom, a long time ago. “It runs in the family,” he said.
In the tent, Grandpa made a shadow bunny on the wall, the one he had made for Mom a hundred times. His hands were slower now. The bunny had a wobbly ear.
Mom made one next. Then Amara. Three bunnies in a row, and one more with a floppy ear, for somebody hiding at the bottom of the sleeping bags.
In the morning the lake was pink and quiet. Grandpa sat on a log with his coffee.
“My knees say I am done skipping stones,” he said. Amara looked for a long time, and found the flattest stone on the whole shore.
“Watch me, Grandpa.” Skip. Skip. Skip. Skip.
Grandpa stood up so fast he spilled his coffee. Mom did not say anything. She was busy with her eyes.
On the way home, Grandpa gave Amara the old list. “You keep it now.”
Amara read it out loud: Tent. Flashlight. Marshmallows. Then, at the bottom, Amara wrote one more line for next summer: Teach Pepper. “Watch me,” Amara told Pepper. “Then you try.”
This book belongs to
Amara
The end.
Did you find Pepper on every page?
Made for Amara, with love from Mom and Grandpa Luis.
Every family deserves to see itself in a story.
ourkindofstory.com · Ages 3 to 8
For what you’re going through
Some stories need a gentler telling.
Tell us what is happening, in your own words. A person reads every one and shapes the story with you, with your child as the one who is brave.
- Adoption and foster
- Two homes
- A new diagnosis
- New hearing aids or a chair
- A new sibling
- Saying goodbye
Our promises
Your family’s faces, handled with care.
Checked by a person
You approve every character and every page. Then a person on our team checks the whole book before it prints.
Your photos are deleted
30 days after you approve your cast, or the day you ask. Never used to train AI, never shown here.
A date we can keep
We only promise a delivery date our printer has proven. If we are going to miss it, you choose: wait, or a full refund.
Easy reprints
We keep your drawn characters, not your photos, so another copy for Grandma is $29 and no work.
Pricing
One price per book. No subscription.
Digital edition
$19no shipping
Read it on any screen, or print it yourself.
- Online reader
- Print-quality PDF
- Up to 6 people and pets
- Upgrade to hardcover later
Most families start here
Hardcover
$49+ $6.99 shipping
The keepsake. A real hardcover, with the digital edition included.
- 8.5 x 8.5 inch hardcover, 32 pages
- Up to 6 people and pets
- Digital edition included
- Free cast redo and 3 page redos
Custom story
$129+ $6.99 shipping
A story written for your family, with a person, from your words.
- A new story written with you
- Two rounds of changes to the words
- Every style, including clay and felt
- Hardcover and digital edition
Extra copy
$29+ $6.99 shipping
The same book for Grandma, sent to her door.
- Same book, another address
- Gift note on the first page
Prices are in US dollars. Shipping is ground within the US. Sales tax is added where the law requires it. Ordering opens soon: join the list and we will write when it does.
Which photos work best?
Three to ten everyday photos of each person, face clearly visible, no sunglasses. Different days and different light help. For pets, a few from the side and the front. If a photo will not work, we tell you why before anything is drawn.
What happens to our photos?
They are used for your book and nothing else. We delete them 30 days after you approve your cast, or the day you ask. We never use them to train AI, and we never make face scans from them. We keep the drawn characters so a reprint is easy, and you can ask us to delete those too.
Will it really look like my kid?
That is the whole point, so you decide. You see each character before a single page is painted, and you approve them one by one. If someone is not right, we draw them again.
How long does it take?
A few days to make and approve, then 3 to 5 business days to print, plus shipping. We only show an order-by date for the holidays once our printer has proven it. If we are going to miss a date we promised, you choose: wait, or a full refund.
Is this made with AI?
The pictures are, and we would rather tell you than have you wonder. An image model paints your family from your photos, in the style you choose. Then people take over: you approve every character and every page, and a person checks the whole book before it prints. The stories are drafted with AI help and edited line by line by a person. The one thing we never do is keep or learn from your photos.
Once upon a time, there was your family.
We are printing our first books now. Join the list, and we will write when your book can be made.
