A book that belongs to one child
Children work out very early which things are truly theirs. A Storykin book has their name on the dedication page, their face in the pictures and their companion beside them on every adventure — because it was made for them and for nobody else.
Why we make these
Personalised books have been around for years, and most of them work the same way: one story, written once, with a space where a name gets dropped in. Buy two for two children and you have bought the same book twice.
That always seemed like a missed opportunity. The thing that makes a child sit up is not seeing their name in someone else's story — it is recognising themselves. Their hair. Their eyes. The dog they actually own. A story that could not have been written for anyone else.
So Storykin makes each book from nothing, one at a time, at the moment it is ordered. It takes a couple of minutes rather than being pulled off a shelf, and that is rather the point.
How a Storykin book is made
Every story is written from scratch
We don't keep a shelf of finished stories and drop a name into the gaps. Your child's book is composed for them — their name, their hair, their eyes, the companion they chose, the lesson you picked. Order two books for two children and you get two genuinely different stories.
Every picture is painted for that story
The illustrations are made to match the words on the page, in a soft watercolour style chosen because it feels like the picture books people remember from their own childhood. No stock art, no clip art, no photographs.
You see the whole book before you pay
You read every page and see every illustration first. If it is not right, you close the tab and it costs you nothing. We would rather lose the sale than sell someone a book they did not love.
It is made to be kept
A 28-page square softcover book on proper paper, printed and shipped from a print partner with presses in 32 countries, so it reaches you quickly wherever you are. This is a keepsake for a shelf, not a file in a folder.
Who these are for
Most Storykin books are bought by someone who is not the child — grandparents most of all, then parents, aunts, uncles and godparents looking for a birthday, Christmas, baby shower or new-sibling present that will not be forgotten by February.
You do not need to be good with computers to make one. You answer a few questions about the child, you read the book we have written, and if you like it we print it and post it. That is the whole thing.
Talk to a person
Storykin is a small operation, which means that when you email us, a person who actually makes the books reads it and replies — usually the same day.
hello@storykinbooks.com