Birthdays & Blessings

Stories inside

Three example books from this collection. Every story is written fresh from your own prompt, so no two families end up with the same one.

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  Story 01

  One Year Older, One Year Loved

  A look back at the year, and everyone who was part of it.

  A year is a very long time when you have only had a few of them, and most of it has already gone fuzzy by the time the next birthday arrives.

  These stories gather it back up. Small scenes from the year just finished, the people who were in them, and the things your child learned to do somewhere along the way.

  You choose what goes in, and the illustrations are drawn from your photographs, so it reads like a scrapbook that somebody took the trouble to write.

  What it draws on

  A look back across the year and the people who were part of it.

  Your child's part

  The centre of every scene.

  Start their story

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  Story 02

  A Blessing for Your Birthday

  A blessing for the year ahead, written into a story they keep.

  A birthday book gets read more than any other, for the obvious reason that it is about the reader.

  This one pairs the ordinary business of a birthday, the cake and the candles and the wish, with a blessing for the year ahead written to be read aloud.

  It is built to come out every year rather than once. The blessing is the same each time, which is rather the point of a blessing.

  What it draws on

  The cake, the candles, the wish, and a blessing for the year coming.

  Your child's part

  The birthday child, named throughout.

  Start their story

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  Story 03

  The Day You Were Given

  The story of their arrival, told as the gift it was.

  Children ask to hear about the day they were born, over and over, and they want the specifics: the weather, the time, who cried.

  It gets told as the gift it was. A quiet house, the first morning, and the people who had been waiting for them without knowing quite who they were waiting for.

  It works for a birthday, for an adoption day, or for any evening when the question comes up again at bedtime.

  What it draws on

  The arrival, the first morning, and the people who were waiting.

  Your child's part

  The one who arrived.

  Start their story