The book they never put down
Their face all through the book
Not just the cover. They are drawn into the story from the first spread to the last, and one of our artists checks every page before it goes to print.
See it before you pay
We draw your child free and show you the cover with their name on it. Nothing is charged until you say yes.
Built to survive a four year old
Hardcover with a matte laminated cover, thick coated pages, printed to order in the USA.
The page you write to them
You write the dedication and we print it word for word, on a page of its own. They hear it at four because you read it to them, and they read it again at twenty, when they are too old for the story and not too old for that.
personalized self esteem book for kids
The Light Behind You
Ages 3 to 7 · Your child
- Who it's for:
- Kids who quietly think nothing changes because of them.
- What happens:
- Your child walks through a dark castle room by room and finds nothing. Then, in the black window, they see every room they passed glowing behind them.
For the child who has quietly decided, without telling anybody, that nothing much changes because they are there. In the town of Amberwick every window lights up gold at dusk and your child cannot find one that belongs to them, so they go up the hill to the castle, which has been dark for longer than anyone remembers and which nobody looks at either. The door is not locked, only heavy. They walk through the whole of it in the dark, room by room, and find nothing at all, and give up at the top. Then they lean on the black window, and a window at night is also a mirror, and in the glass is the staircase behind them with every room they walked through lit gold. Nobody crowns them and nobody tells them they are special. What your child takes away is that you cannot watch yourself doing good, which is exactly why it feels like nothing while you are doing it. Written in rhyme across thirteen spreads.
About half a minute. No account, no card.
About six business days, printing included
Every book is checked by a real artist
- Ages
- 3 to 7
- Who is in it
- The child
- The book
- Hardcover, 30 pages, 11 × 8.3 in
Inside this book
A real page from The Light Behind You
Thirteen spreads, all at 300 dpi.
Your child
One photo makes them the star
We draw them from it once, then keep that same face across every spread. Their name goes under the title, where they can see it without opening the book.
Made to be handled, not admired
It gets carried around the house, slept on, and read four hundred times. Thick coated pages, a matte laminated hardcover, and thirteen spreads printed at 300 dpi across both pages. Nothing is printed until you order it, so the only copy that exists is the one with your child on the cover.
Printed and bound in the United States
- Pages
- 30 pages, drawn at 4K and printed at 300 dpi
- Paper
- 170gsm coated silk
- Cover
- Matte laminated hardcover
- Binding
- Glued, square edges
- Dedication
- Its own page, after the story
- Delivery
- At your door in about six business days, printed just for you and tracked all the way
What families wrote back
4.9
3,000+ reviews from families across the studio, since 2020
My daughter couldn’t believe it when she saw herself in the story. She keeps saying, ‘That’s me!’ Every bedtime starts with this book now.
The quality is amazing. Thick pages, beautiful colors, and the personalization looks so natural. It truly feels like the story was written just for my son.
I thought it would just be a cute gift, but it quickly became my daughter’s favorite bedtime story.
We chose the story about overcoming the fear of the dark. After reading it together for a few nights, bedtime has become so much easier.
The shipping was much faster than I expected. The book arrived in perfect condition.
This is such a unique gift. Everyone in our family was amazed when they saw it.
The illustrations are absolutely beautiful, and seeing my son’s face throughout the story made us all smile.
Customer service was fantastic. They helped me make a small change before printing, and everything turned out perfectly.
My daughter actually asks to read instead of watching TV before bed now.
Before you decide
My child has never said they feel small. Is a book about this going to put the idea there?
No, and the story never once uses the word. Nobody in it tells your child they are not enough, and nobody tells them they are either. What happens on the page is that a child walks into a dark castle and it quietly lights up behind them. A child who has never had that feeling reads it as an adventure with a very good surprise in it.
There is no crown and no king at the end. Does your child actually get anything?
Not from anybody, and that is the whole design. The castle is empty and there is nobody to award anything. What gives your child their light back is a dark window, because a window at night is also a mirror, which is a real thing that real windows do and a four year old already knows it.
Can I put more than one child in the book?
Yes, in one story: The One Who Goes First is written for two children, both drawn from your photos. Sixteen of the others have one child, and eight of them add grown ups or your pet: I Love You, Mom; I Love You, Dad; The House That Remembers; The Cat Who Knew the Way; One More Hour; Come and Find Me; The Unfinished One; and My Hero. Nobody in a book costs extra.
Can I preview it before paying?
That is the whole point of the free preview. Upload a photo and see your child drawn, then on the cover with their name, before you decide. No account, no card, nothing to cancel. One honest note: the preview is a first draft. Before anything is printed we check it page by page, and the printed book is sharper than what you see on screen.
Why $59, when a name-only book costs less?
A name-only book shows every family the same drawn child and drops in a name. Here your child is drawn from your photo, the same face on the cover and all through the story, and anyone else in it from their own photo at no extra charge. It is a thirty-page hardcover printed to order in the USA, and you see your child drawn, on the cover with their name, before you pay anything.
What is actually personalized?
Your child's face first: we draw them from your photo and keep that same face on the cover and all through the story, and anyone else in the book is drawn from their own photo. Their name goes under the title and into the verses, and the page after the story is yours to write, printed word for word. The story and the scenes around them are the same for everyone who picks this title, written and drawn before you arrive and approved page by page, so nothing strange can turn up in your child's book.
What is the book physically?
A landscape hardcover, 11 by 8.3 inches (280 by 210 mm), thirty pages on 170gsm coated silk paper, matte laminated cover, glued binding. Printed in the United States.
How long does it take to arrive?
About six business days. Your book does not exist until you order it, so it has to be printed, bound and shipped, and we count the printing inside those six days. Ordering on a Thursday means it lands the week after, so leave room before a birthday. Shipping is $6.99 inside the US, and free on orders from $88.
What kind of photo works?
For each person in the story, one clear shot of the face, looking roughly at the camera, in decent light. For a cat or dog, one daylight photo where their markings show. A phone photo is fine. A scan from an old album is fine too: the picture at the top of our home page is our founder in about 1992, scanned off film, and the character came straight from it.
What do you do with the photo?
We look at it once to build the character, and from then on the character is what travels through the book. Your photo is never printed on a page. Thirty days after your book ships it is deleted from our systems. Want it deleted sooner? Write to hello@dreamtalecartoons.com and we delete it, no reason needed.
What if it comes out wrong?
Write to hello@dreamtalecartoons.com before it prints and we fix it for free, or cancel and refund you in full: books go to the printer shortly after you order, so write quickly. If it arrives damaged, send us a photo and we reprint it, and you keep the damaged one. If we got something wrong (a misspelled name, the wrong dedication, a printing fault), send us a photo and we reprint it at our cost, or refund you in full if you would rather.
The character does not look like them.
You see the character before you pay, and that is the moment to tell us: write to hello@dreamtalecartoons.com and we redraw it. If you only notice once the book has arrived, write anyway and we will find a way to make it right. Likeness is the one thing we cannot get wrong, so we would rather you were fussy than polite.
Not here? See all the questions, or write to hello@dreamtalecartoons.com. A person answers.
