Made by one mum, for the ten minutes that matter most
I am a single mum. I do the cooking and the washing and the working, I worry about whether my son is getting the stimulation he needs, and I try, in between all of it, to actually be present with him rather than just near him.
The bit of the day that never gets negotiated away is reading time. It is his favourite. It is mine too, because it is the part where we are properly together, his head against my arm, nobody rushing anywhere.
But I would be lying if I said it was only about the cuddle. Those ten minutes are also the calmest, most attentive window I get with him all day. If there is something I want him to understand, about being brave, about sharing, about the planets, that window is where it lands.
The problem is that he skips. He asks whether he is Paddington. He is obsessed with rockets and the Earth from space, and he will flip four pages at a time until he finds one, then sit perfectly still. No shop can sell me the book that uses that, because the book that works for my son is specific to my son, this month.
So I built it. Connection and learning in the same ten minutes, without having to choose.
Short books count too
Some nights there is no twenty minutes. There is a late dinner, a meltdown about socks, and a mum who is running on fumes. On those nights the honest choice used to be a rushed book that neither of us enjoyed, or no book at all.
So StoryPals makes short books on purpose. A quick story is still a whole story with a beginning, a wobble and a proper ending. It just fits in the time you actually have.
Quick story
9 story pages · about 3 minutes to read aloud
For the nights when there isn't much left in the tank. Still a whole story, just a short one. Prints as a softcover.
Bedtime story
13 story pages · about 5 minutes to read aloud
The usual length. A proper adventure with a beginning, a wobble and a cosy ending. Prints as a softcover.
Big adventure
21 story pages · about 8 minutes to read aloud
A longer book to grow into, with more happening and more to look at. The one that can be a hardcover.
If you are the parent who has been feeling guilty about the short nights: please stop. A three-minute book that both of you enjoy beats a twenty-minute one nobody finishes.
How the books are made
Start from the obsession
Every book is built on whatever they cannot stop talking about this week. The lesson rides along inside it, so nobody feels taught.
The right number of words
Each reading band has a word budget per page, from about 6 words for toddlers up to 115 for confident readers. Pages are never crowded and never bare.
The same child on every page
A written description of the hero, the same art direction and your photos go out with every illustration, so the face, hair and clothes never drift.
Words are never baked into art
Illustrations are made with no text in them at all. Type is set afterwards on a soft gradient or the book's paper, so words stay sharp and readable.
Made for a real printer
Bleed, safety margins, spine width and page-count rules are built in from the start, so the file that prints is the file you approved.
You have the last word
Rewrite any page, redraw any picture, change the style or colours of the whole book. Nothing prints until you say so.
Honest about the technology
The stories and pictures are made with AI, and I would rather say that plainly than dress it up. What matters is everything built around it: word budgets tuned to each age, 8 art styles with their own lettering, a layout engine built to real print specification, and a parent who can change anything before a single page is printed.
You know your child better than any model does. The tool is only there to turn what you already know into something they will sit still for.
Photos you upload are used to illustrate your book and nothing else. If you would rather not upload any, describing your child in a sentence works better than most people expect.
Make one for your child
Free to write and read on screen. You pay only if you want it printed.