A tender story about your child getting ready for a brand-new role - big sibling - and discovering a heart that just keeps growing with more love to share..
From $14.90
A new baby
Personalised baby books, and the year they actually get read
A personalised book for a newborn is bought by someone who will not be reading it for about three years. That gap is the whole decision, and it is worth being honest about before you spend anything.
Nothing about a new baby needs a book. They cannot see across the room, they cannot hold a page, and the story will mean nothing to them for years. That is not an argument against buying one - it is an argument for being clear about who it is for, because a present bought for the baby and a present bought for the two exhausted adults in the room are different objects, and only one of them gets used this month.
The book is for the parents, and that is fine
Say it plainly and the choice gets easier. In the first months a personalised book is a thing the parents look at, show people, and put on a shelf. Judge it as that: is it nice to hold, is the name spelled right, does it survive being handled by visitors.
The mistake is buying it as though the baby will engage with it, and then being disappointed that they do not. They will not. What you are buying is an object that will still be in the house when they can read it, which is a real thing to buy and a different thing to optimise for.
A newborn photograph is the weakest photograph you will ever have of them
This is the part most personalised-book companies will not tell you, and it applies to ours as much as anyone's. A book like this works by drawing a character from a photograph. A two-week-old has almost none of the features that make a face recognisable later - the hair changes, the shape of the face changes, the eyes settle months from now.
So a book made from a newborn photograph is a book about a baby who no longer exists by the time anyone reads it aloud. If the likeness is the reason you were buying it, wait. At eighteen months to two years there is a face to draw, and the same money buys a book that looks like the person it is about.
The gift almost nobody gives, and the one that lands
If there is an older child in the house, they are the person having the hardest week and the person nobody is buying for. Every visitor arrives for the baby. A present that is unmistakably theirs, on the day the house fills with people who came to see someone else, does more than another newborn cardigan.
This is the one place where a personalised book at a new birth is genuinely the right object rather than a nice one: the older sibling is old enough to understand it, old enough to be drawn recognisably, and is the one being asked to absorb the change.
What to avoid
Anything that needs the parents to do work. A gift requiring them to find a photograph, fill a form and approve a proof in the first fortnight is a task, not a present. If you are giving a personalised book to new parents, either do the ordering yourself with a photograph they already sent you, or give it later and say so.
And anything sized for the moment rather than the shelf. A soft cloth book with a name on it is used for four months and then gone. If you want the thing that survives, the format matters more than the personalisation.
Where our book fits, and where it does not
It does not fit a newborn. Ours is a twelve-chapter story drawn from one photograph, and both halves of that are wrong for a two-week-old: too long to read to them, and drawn from a face that has not arrived yet.
It fits in two places. The first is the older sibling, now - there is a story written for exactly that week, and they are the right age to be in it. The second is the baby themselves, later, once there is a face to draw; thirty-three of our stories are written for the nought-to-two end, so the book you buy at two is still a baby book, just one that looks like them.
The digital edition is $14.90 and the hardcover is $42.90. You see the cover and the whole first chapter free before paying, which for this decision matters more than usual: you can look at the drawn character and decide whether the likeness is there yet.
Where to start
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Common questions
Are personalised baby books worth it?
As an object kept for later, yes. As something the baby uses now, no - a newborn cannot follow a story and will not for years. Buy it if you want a thing that is still in the house when they can read it, and judge it on how well it will have aged.
What age is a personalised book actually for?
Ours are written to be read aloud from around two, and read alone later. Thirty-three of our stories are written for the nought-to-two end, so there is a real book for a very small child - it is just not for a two-week-old.
Can you make a personalised book from a newborn photo?
You can, and we would gently suggest waiting. The character is drawn from the photograph, and a newborn does not yet have the features that make the drawing recognisable. At eighteen months to two years the same money buys a book that looks like them.
What do you give an older sibling when the baby arrives?
Something that is unmistakably theirs, given on a day when every other present in the house is for someone else. That is the strongest case for a personalised book at a new birth: the older child is old enough to understand it and old enough to be drawn recognisably, and they are the one being asked to absorb the change.
What is a good new-baby gift for the parents rather than the baby?
Anything that removes a task. Food, a delivery they did not have to arrange, or a gift you have already done the work for. If it is a personalised book, order it yourself from a photograph they have already sent you - do not hand them a code and a form in the first fortnight.
Other guides
Written on 1 September 2026. This guide makes no claims about any other company's products, and the only facts asserted about ours - twelve chapters, one photograph, the free first chapter, and the prices shown - are the ones on our own product pages. The advice about newborn photographs is our own experience of drawing them, not a medical claim.
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If there is an older child in the house, they are the one having the hardest week - and there is a story written for exactly that.
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