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'sPersonalized Stories for a New Baby4–8 yearsFree

An adventure starring your little one

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Luci's Green Notebook

The baby would arrive in spring. Every grown-up who came through the door asked Luci the same question.

—How do you feel about it, Luci?

Luci did not know yet. She shrugged, then listened to the quiet house, waiting for an answer to bloom.

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One afternoon, Luci opened a kitchen drawer and discovered a green notebook. On the first page, she printed: EVERYTHING I AM GOING TO TEACH YOU.

Item one was whistling. Make your mouth a small round door. Luci practiced until one clear note floated upstairs.

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Item two: the fourth stair from the bottom creaks, so skip it. Luci tested every step, notebook tucked safely nearby. Creak!

Item three: the best hiding places are behind the long coats and beneath the kitchen table, where the tablecloth makes a secret room.

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Item four named the cookies worth choosing: those with a jam eye in the middle. Luci sampled one solemnly and added a careful star.

Outside, she learned how to hold a snail gently. It stretched forward, while the green notebook waited open on the grass.

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All spring, Luci's list grew. She wrote how rain smells before it arrives, and the fastest way downhill on the blue scooter.

She also recorded what to tell the dog next door:

—It's all right. I am only passing.

Sometimes the barking stopped.

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Luci practiced whistling on the stairs, wrote at the kitchen table, and balanced the notebook on her knees during bus rides. Beneath her blankets, a flashlight lit new lines.

When the baby finally arrived, four pages were filled on both sides. Luci's unknown feeling fluttered closer.

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In the big armchair, Luci cradled the baby and opened the green notebook. Nobody asked any questions.

—Item one: make your mouth into a small round door, she whispered.

That night, Luci added: HOW TO BE A BIG SISTER. She left it uncrossed. They would learn together.

An adventure starring your little one

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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.
In a few minutes your story is ready to read online, download as a PDF or order as a printed hardcover book.

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.