Birthday

There is an age when the toys start repeating themselves, and another when nobody knows what to give any more. A personalized birthday gift solves both: an illustrated storybook where the birthday kid is the hero, with their real face on every page and an adventure built from the things they actually love.

A story with their whole year inside

You do not need to invent anything: the material is the year they have just lived.

• This season's obsession: dinosaurs, football, the cardboard box that became a spaceship
• Their best friend, the grandparents, the dog that appears in every photo
• What they learned this year: swimming without armbands, reading alone, sleeping with the light off
• The wish they make every time they blow out the candles

You write those moments the way you would tell them to a friend; the story is written and illustrated from one photo (plus one for anyone else who appears), and you approve every page before anything is printed. The dedication on the first page is yours, and it is the one they reread every year.

Grown-up birthdays too

Milestone birthdays are the other big moment: a book about the person turning 40, 50 or 70, told by their family, says more than any dinner. In The Things He Never Asked For, Roberto opens a book of everything he wanted and never said out loud. The hardback ends up on the shelf like a real book; the digital edition arrives in minutes if the birthday is tomorrow, and the narrated audiobook adds a voice to it.

Below you can read real birthday stories, like The Birthday That Arrived Early. There are more in birthday stories, and if the gift is for another person or another date, here are all the occasions to give a story.