The Bedtime Story as a Keepsake

Repetition is what makes it a keepsake

Nothing becomes a keepsake by being nice. It becomes one by being present for a stretch of time that later gets remembered as a single period. The bedtime book qualifies more reliably than almost any other object, because it is the one thing that happens every night without fail.

Which is also the argument for reading the same story over and over — the thing that feels monotonous at the time is exactly what makes it matter later.

What to keep, practically

• The PDF. Store it somewhere that is not only your phone — cloud storage plus one downloaded copy.
• The audio. The narration ages differently to the text and is worth keeping in its own right.
• One printed copy. Hardcover, out of direct sun. This is the one that gets handled.
• A date. Write the year inside the cover. It is the detail everybody forgets and later wants.

When the child starts to notice

Somewhere around two and a half to three, children work out that the book has their name in it, and the reaction is worth waiting for. Before that, the keepsake is really for the parents — a record of a period that goes past faster than anyone tells you.

Story and song together

Families who have both a personalised story and a lullaby with the same name tend to keep them as a pair. One is the thing that was read; the other is the thing that was heard as they fell asleep. Between them they cover the whole of bedtime for a couple of years — the pairing is explained in story then lullaby.

If you are choosing one as a present rather than for your own child, see personalised storybooks as a gift.

The version we make

Every story we create comes as a ten-page illustrated book you can read on screen, a print-ready PDF, and an MP3 of the narration with the cover art attached. All three are yours to keep and back up — nothing expires, and nothing is locked behind an account.