Most of what we print is for children. This group is not, or not entirely. These six exist because there is a category of thing people want to say and cannot get out of their mouth, and a book is a way of handing it over without having to perform it.
They sort cleanly by who is speaking to whom.
To a partner
I've Always Wanted to Tell You This is the only book on this site where you write most of it. It runs on guided fill-in-the-blank prompts, so the structure and the illustration are done and the specifics are yours.
That changes what it costs you. The other books here are chosen; this one is written, and it will take an evening and some honesty. If you want to hand over something that could not have been bought for anyone else, this is it. If you want a gift you can order in four minutes, it is the wrong one. Red, pink, black or white covers, from $39.99.
Where We Met is the version for people who would rather not compose anything. It walks from the first meeting through first dates, shared homes and the choosing of each other that keeps happening daily. Anniversaries, weddings, engagements, and Valentines who prefer their romance in print. It starts at $19.99, the cheapest of the six.
To someone who is not a partner
This is the harder category to shop for and the two books in it are usefully different.
This Book is Yours is for a person who needs to hear that they are seen. A friend going through something difficult, someone who has been quietly reliable for years, anyone who would find a direct conversation about it unbearable. The hand-lettered art keeps it on the right side of sentimental, and it comes in six colours — beige, black, blue, green, pink or yellow — which matters more than usual here, because this is a book for an adult who has taste.
This Book is Not About You takes the opposite approach and jokes its way there. It describes someone cool, smart, funny and kind while maintaining that the book is definitely not about them. For people who deflect compliments, this is the only version that gets past the defences. Green, orange, pink or purple.
Choose between them on temperament. One says the thing. The other lets both of you pretend it did not, which for some relationships is the only workable route.
To a child, from someone who is not their parent
Auntie or Uncle Loves You to the Moon and Back is written for the relative who claimed favourite status early and has been saying so ever since. It measures love in units children take seriously — rainbows, cookies, and the full distance to the moon and back — with the child named through the pages.
Aunts and uncles occupy an odd position: enormously important to a child, and structurally invisible on the gift calendar, since there is no day for it. That is an argument for giving this one at random rather than waiting.
From parents, about their own child
How to Raise a Name-O-Saurus is the outlier here, and the funniest. It is about the wild, wonderful chaos of childhood — the roaring, the stomping, the tumbling — framed as a survival guide for the parents doing the raising.
It works as a new-parent gift precisely because it is not reverent about it. Somebody eight weeks into their first child has received a great deal of soft-focus sentiment by then. Five cover colours: yellow, green, purple, teal or blue.
One thing worth thinking about first
A book like this is not a low-stakes gift. It says something out loud and puts it in print, and the person receiving it has to react in front of you. That is the whole value and it is also the risk.
If you are unsure how it will land, the joking version and the fill-in-the-blank version sit at opposite ends of that scale. One gives everybody an exit. The other gives nobody one.
Ordering
Four of the six start at $39.99, two at $19.99, and all come in hardcover and softcover, chosen on the product page. These are display objects more than reading copies, and hardcover reads as considered where softcover can read as a card with extra pages.
Books are printed to order in the United States with a two to four business day production window before shipping; nothing is held in stock. Anniversaries and Valentine's Day are fixed dates, so order with room.
Read what you have typed before you pay — it appears in your cart, at checkout and on your order confirmation, and on the fill-in-the-blank title that is more text than usual to check. Personalized books cannot be returned once printed, but a mistake reported quickly can usually be caught pre-print, and anything damaged or misprinted we replace free.
The rest sit in Family & Grandparent Stories. For the versions aimed squarely at a parent, see what to give for Mother's Day besides a card and Grandad, Pappa or Opa: picking the right book.