Luci's Green Notebook

The baby will arrive in spring, and Luci does not know how she feels about it. Then she finds a green notebook and starts a list: everything she is going to teach them.

Children's4-8 yearsFree

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Children's story · Ages 4-8

Luci's Green Notebook begins with a question every grown-up keeps asking: the baby will arrive in spring, and how does Luci feel about it? Luci does not know yet. She shrugs, listens to the quiet house, and waits for an answer to bloom. It arrives one afternoon inside a kitchen drawer, in the shape of a green notebook with nothing written in it.

On the first page she prints, in careful capital letters, EVERYTHING I AM GOING TO TEACH YOU. Item one is whistling. Item two is the stair that creaks. From there the list grows all spring: the best hiding places, the cookies worth choosing, how to hold a snail gently, what to say to the dog next door so the barking stops.

It is a warm, quietly funny story for children who are about to become older siblings, and it works especially well read aloud in the weeks before the baby arrives, when nobody quite knows what to say.

A list instead of an answer

Nobody in this story tells Luci how to feel about the baby. Instead of an answer, she builds a list. Every item is something small and real from her own days: a whistle that finally floats upstairs, a creaking fourth stair worth skipping, the secret room a tablecloth makes beneath the kitchen table. By writing down what she knows, Luci slowly discovers that she knows a lot, and that knowing things is what big sisters are for.

The answer to everyone's question was waiting in a kitchen drawer.

What children take from Luci's spring

A new sibling is not a test with a right answer. Luci is allowed to not know how she feels, for a whole spring if she needs it.
What you already know has value. Whistling, hiding places and jam cookies feel small until someone writes them down for somebody else.
Waiting can be used. While the grown-ups prepare cribs, Luci prepares herself, one item at a time.
Some things are learned together. The last line of the notebook stays uncrossed on purpose.

Item one: make your mouth into a small round door.

Item two: the fourth stair from the bottom creaks, so skip it.

Now imagine it with your own child's name

Every page of this story was built around one child: her name, her red curls, her purple bow, her very serious list. That is exactly what you can do for a child you know who is about to become a big sister or a big brother. Same spring, same notebook, their face on every page.

How to create your own personalized story

Upload a photo of the child and tell us their name, their age and what they love doing.
Choose the illustration style and the tone, and describe the adventure you want.
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Why it works as a new-baby gift

When a baby arrives, every present in the house is for the baby. A book where the older sibling is the hero does the opposite: it tells them, without a speech, that they matter in this story too. It is the classic gift for the day of the hospital visit, and it keeps being read at bedtime long after.

Beneath her blankets, a flashlight lit new lines.

What age is this story for?

It reads best with children between four and eight, especially those expecting a new sibling. The short items on Luci's list make it easy to pause and talk about what your child would add.

Does it deal with jealousy?

No. This is not a story about being replaced; it is a story about getting ready. Luci's feeling is never named, and that is the point: she is allowed to figure it out herself.