A personalised first birthday book with their photo

How it works

Tell us about them

Their name, their age, one thing you love.

Read it before you pay

The whole story and the cover. Change any line.

We make the book

A person checks every page. Hardcover, to your door.

What goes in a first-year book

Their year. A one-year-old has no favourite show yet and no best friend; what they have is a year of ordinary days with the people who love them. Those days are what you tell us, and the story and the pictures are made of them.

One book started with an aunt’s brief, sent as her niece’s family moved to a new town. She loves cuddles, visiting her dad at work, and video calls to the family who now live far away. Her flower stacker toy went in, and the indoor cat, and the outside dog. Her dad drives a red truck, and from the new front yard you can watch it pass on the highway overpass, so the aunt asked for the truck. She wasn’t walking yet, so the book never shows her walking.

A grandmother’s order took the one-year-old and his eight-year-old brother through their year at home and a day at the beach, past the party with the cake, and ended on his first steps, both boys in the family’s footy colours.

• The people who love them
• The pets, the toys, the songs
• First sounds and first words
• An ordinary day at one

Most orders add people to the pictures: 17 of our first 24 paid orders did, mum or dad most often, with the family dog close behind (our order records). There is no girl version or boy version: the story is about this child.

Is a book too early at one?

They won’t remember the party, and they won’t recognise themselves in a picture for a while yet: a baby may recognise themselves in the mirror by about 18 months (Pregnancy, Birth and Baby), and none of us can remember much before the age of 2 or 3 (The Conversation, 2022). So for the first year or two the parents are the readers.

Some say a name-only book is enough at one for that reason. The difference is on the page and in what the book becomes. Some photo storybooks put the picture on one page and the words on the facing page; ours is one painted scene across both pages, drawn from the child’s photo, with the words set into it. And a book with their real year in it is the one that is kept: at three or four they point at themselves, their dog, their house. A godmother on Mumsnet, asking what to give for a first birthday, wanted “one to share now and one to keep”.

From a grandparent, an aunt, a godparent

Most of our books are gifts. 26 of our first 36 paid orders were marked as a gift; seven dedications were signed by a grandparent, eight by an aunt or uncle (our order records). Givers on r/BabyBumpsandBeyondAu ask for the same two things: something the family is not likely to have already, and not another toy.

Your dedication is printed word for word, with your name on it, so the one present at the party that is about this child is also clearly from you. The grandmother who ordered the brothers’ book signed hers as Nanny, with birthday wishes for the year ahead; an aunt’s family wrote about the honour of watching her grow through her first year; aunties in Australia told their nephew far away that they think of him every day. If you are far away yourself, the details only you know still go in: the nickname only you use, or the visit you are planning.

More for grandparents on the books for grandparents page.

The date and the price

We make the book in up to 3 days, then the post takes up to 10 business days. Order today and it arrives by Monday 19 October; that arrival date shows on the price screen before you pay. 29 of the first 30 delivered orders arrived within 10 business days of reaching the printer. You read the whole story and see the cover and the first two pages before you pay, and we change any line you want changed. A person checks every book before it prints, and the words are placed by hand.

$99 for the hardcover, delivered, GST included: 20 cm square, 32 pages, 170 gsm paper. 3 people in the pictures are included, up to 6, $15 each from the fourth. The Keepsake ($119) adds a six-page photo album and an online copy; for a first birthday, the album is the place for the first-year photos.

First birthday books compared

A Paperlake book is written for one child, every spread is one painted scene drawn from their photo, and a person checks every book before it prints. Prices in Australian dollars, checked 1 October 2026; we publish this list and put ourselves first.

The others cost less and personalise less. All four put the child’s name and an avatar built from options into a story written once for every child; My Story Tale also lets you edit the words on each page. Ours is the one where the story is their year and the pictures come from their photo.

A storybook is not a baby memory book

A first-year memory book or journal (Peachly, Write To Me) is filled in by the parents: the firsts, the weights, the photos. A storybook is written for the child, to be read to them. A family that journals may well have the first kind already; the storybook is the one you can give.

Birthday books for older children

We make books for newborns to about eight, and the story grows with the age: short lines read aloud at two, a real plot with their friends and their interests by five. Each age in detail: personalised books by age.

We publish this guide and include ourselves alongside four other services. How we compare is on the methodology page.