Examples
Three children, three books, one house style.
Page through them
Notice who is the same on every spread.
Typed by the parentMia, 6, brown braids, brown skin, yellow raincoat. A whale made of moonlight visits her window.
Mia and the Moon Whale
Mia could not sleep. The rain had stopped and the whole street was shining. She knelt on her bed and pressed her nose to the cold glass, and that was when she saw it. Something enormous and silver was swimming slowly down the middle of the road.
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Mia and the Moon Whale
Typed by the parentMia, 6, brown braids, brown skin, yellow raincoat. A whale made of moonlight visits her window.
Mia, a child of about 6 years old, brown braids, brown skin, dark eyes, wearing a yellow raincoat over simple clothes. The same child appears in every illustration with exactly these features.
Spread 1
Mia could not sleep. The rain had stopped and the whole street was shining. She knelt on her bed and pressed her nose to the cold glass, and that was when she saw it. Something enormous and silver was swimming slowly down the middle of the road.
Painted fromA child kneels on a bed at a window at night, nose to the glass, looking out at a wet street lit silver after rain.
Spread 2
It was a whale. A whale made entirely of moonlight, with barnacles like little stars. It came right up to the window and waited, the way a bus waits. Mia put on her boots. You do not keep a whale waiting.
Painted fromA vast whale made of moonlight hovers outside a second floor window while a child in boots steps onto the sill to meet it.
Spread 3
They swam over the town all night, over the church and the chip shop and Mrs Okafor's greenhouse. When the sky went pale the whale carried her home and breathed once against the window, warm as a kettle. Mia was asleep before the light came on.
Painted fromA child rides on the back of a glowing whale high above the rooftops of a small town, first light on the horizon.
Theo and the Morning the Flour Ran Out
Typed by the parentTheo, 9, curly black hair, deep brown skin, round glasses, green apron. The bakery runs out of flour on festival morning.
Theo, a child of about 9 years old, curly black hair, deep brown skin, brown eyes, round glasses, wearing a forest green apron over simple clothes. The same child appears in every illustration with exactly these features.
Spread 1
The bread festival began at nine. At ten past six, Theo's grandmother opened the flour bin, looked into it for a long moment, and said a word that Theo pretended not to hear. The bin was empty. Forty loaves were promised and the mill did not open until Monday.
Painted fromEarly morning in a small village bakery. A child in an apron peers into an empty wooden flour bin while an older baker stands with hands on hips.
Spread 2
Theo took the handcart and went door to door. A cup from the Alvarez house. Half a bag from the school kitchen. Two jars from the woman who kept bees and did not bake at all but liked to be asked. By seven the cart was heavy and the sun was properly up.
Painted fromA child pulls a wooden handcart loaded with mismatched flour bags and jars along a village street in low golden morning light, neighbours waving from doorways.
Spread 3
The loaves were not identical. One was pale, one had honey in it, one came out the shape of Portugal. Nobody minded. The village ate all forty and asked for the honey one again next year, which is how a mistake becomes a tradition.
Painted fromA long trestle table in a sunny village square covered with forty different loaves, people gathered around, a child in an apron standing proudly at one end.
Nadia and the Library Under the Tide
Typed by the parentNadia, 3, red hair, fair skin with freckles, teal sweater. A library appears under the sea at low tide.
Nadia, a child of about 3 years old, red hair, fair skin with freckles, green eyes, wearing a teal sweater over simple clothes. The same child appears in every illustration with exactly these features.
Spread 1
The sea went out. Out and out and out. And there in the sand was a door.
Painted fromA very wide empty beach at low tide with a small child standing before a weathered wooden door set into the wet sand.
Spread 2
Down the steps. Down and down. A crab said, quietly please. It was a library.
Painted fromA small child walks down worn stone steps into a warm underwater room lined with bookshelves, a large friendly crab holding a lamp.
Spread 3
Nadia read one book to the crab. Then the sea came back, so she went home for tea.
Painted fromA small child sits cross legged reading aloud from a picture book to an attentive crab, shelves of books behind, warm lamp light.
The next one on this page could have your child's name on it.
The first book is free, four spreads, every page illustrated.