Penwynn · For families

The main character does not have to be a child

Most personalised books insert a child's name into a fixed story. Ours writes the story around whoever you describe — and that person does not have to be four years old.

Why this is unusual

Nearly every personalised book works the same way: a fixed manuscript with a slot for a name, and a few hair and skin options for the illustrations. It is why they are cheap, and why two children with completely different lives get the same book.

We generate the story and every illustration from what you write. Nothing about the book assumes a child — the reading age is something you choose, not something the format decided on your behalf.

Who people actually put in them

A grandparent, for a birthday, about the things they did before anybody called them grandad. A parent, from a child who cannot write yet. A dog, entirely seriously. A whole family, with everyone in it, as a record of one particular year.

Up to five people appear and recur through the book, drawn from the same reference sheets each time — so a family book keeps the same faces on page thirty as on page three, rather than the same face with different hair.

Which is how we ended up making a Don Quixote

We wanted a demonstration nobody could mistake for a child's name dropped into a template, so we made one about a knight from 1605. Cervantes is out of copyright, the story is about nobody's family, and if the pipeline could hold a delusional old man in dented armour across twenty illustrations then it could hold your grandfather.

It is a small piece of the book rather than the whole novel — the towers on the ridge, the washbasin helmet, and the servant who can see perfectly well what they really are.

What you cannot put in one

Characters somebody else owns. Elsa, Spider-Man, Harry Potter, Bluey and the rest belong to the companies that made them and we have no licence to print them, so we refuse those requests rather than take the order.

Out-of-copyright figures are fine — Don Quixote, Alice, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood — and so is anything you invented yourself. If you made the character up, it is yours.

A book we made for exactly this

An old knight sees three white towers on the ridge that were not there before, puts a washbasin on his head because a helmet helps you think, and rides out. Nobody in it is a child, and nothing about the book had to change to allow that.

Cover of Don QuixoteAn opening from Don Quixote

Don Quixote

An old knight in dented armour sees three white towers on the ridge that were not there before, puts a washbasin on his head because a helmet helps you think, and rides out.

Don Quixote and his servant Andres · 36 pages · 8 × 8 inches square

Read every page →

Questions about this

Can a personalised book be about an adult?
Yes, and it is a large part of what people order. The reading age is chosen when you make the book, so a book for an adult reads like a book for an adult rather than a picture book with a grown-up standing in it.
Can I make a book about a fictional character?
If the character is out of copyright — Don Quixote, Alice, Sherlock Holmes — or if you invented them yourself, yes. Characters owned by somebody else, like Elsa or Spider-Man, we refuse: we write the words, draw the pictures and post the parcel, so an infringing book would be one we made rather than one we carried.
Can a pet be the main character?
Yes. Describe them the way you would describe a person — the breed, the colouring, the thing they always do — and they are drawn consistently through the whole book rather than as a generic dog.
How many people can be in one book?
Up to five appear and recur. Each gets a reference sheet the illustrator works from, which is what keeps a family book looking like one family.
Is a book about an adult still a picture book?
Physically, yes — the same sewn hardcover, the same illustration across each opening. What changes is the writing. It reads closer to a short illustrated story than to a bedtime book, and it is usually read once, properly, rather than four hundred times.

Questions about the books themselves →

Make one for your family

Describe them and we'll write and draw it. It is free until you have read the whole story and seen every page — you only pay if you want it printed.

Make a book

Questions first? hello@penwynn.com