Dreamtale Cartoons
4.9 from 3,000+ reviews

Turn a memory
into a dreamtale
you can hold.

Old childhood photo from a family album, the one photo a custom children's book starts from
Back then
The same child drawn from that one photo as a 3D storybook character
What we drew
A personalized children's book in hardcover, starring that same child on the cover
Now, in hardcover

One photo of your little one, or the two of you. A real hardcover with them on every page.

See them in the story

Free to see before you pay.About 30 seconds, no account, no card.

10,000 families

since 2020

Free preview

before you pay

About eight business days

printed, then tracked

One of a kind

drawn only for you

personalized storybooks from your photo

Every story is about something real.

Each one is written to help your child grow, with the courage, kindness and confidence to meet the big moments in their life.

See all books

How it works

You do one thing. We do the rest.

  1. An example photo, a girl standing in her living room01

    Send one photo

    A minute

  2. That same girl, drawn as a Dreamtale character02

    Meet them, free

    30 seconds, free

  3. That girl's finished hardcover, standing on a table at home03

    Get the book

    About eight business days

The likeness

The gap in their teeth. The hearing aid. The freckles.

The details you would notice from across a room.

See yours drawn, free

These are characters we drew to show the style. Yours is drawn from your photo.

In their words

What families write back.

  • A girl holding a copy of The Waiting Kingdom in a living room
  • A boy holding a copy of The Smallest Knight in his bedroom
  • A grown up holding a copy of The Bravest Night
  • A girl reading her copy of The Bravest Night on her bed
  • A grandmother and her granddaughter with their copy of The House That Remembers
  • A boy holding his copy of The Birthday Star in his bedroom
  • A girl holding a copy of The Cat Who Knew the Way in a living room
  • A girl holding a copy of Kindness Is a Crown in her bedroom

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.

Now make one that is theirs

Free preview first. No account, no card.

More than one face

A family is rarely one person.

Mom, Dad, Grandma, a brother or sister, the dog: each drawn from your photo.

Inside

They get both pages.

A Dreamtale book lying open on a table, one illustration running across both pages
From The Bravest Night. Thirteen spreads like this in every book.

Our promise

A photo of someone you love. We treat it that way.

What actually happens to a photo you upload

Before you ask

The honest answers

How long does it take to arrive?

About eight 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 that time. Weekends and holidays do not count, so leave room before a birthday: the book page and your cart show the real delivery dates before you pay. Shipping is $6.99 inside the US, and free on orders from $78.

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 a photograph from the early nineties, scanned off film, and the character came straight from 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.

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.

Why $49, 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 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.

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.

All the questions

The last page is yours.

Whatever you want to say to them, printed word for word.

Start with one photo

Free. No account, no card, nothing to cancel.

A Dreamtale book open at the dedication page, written by the parents