Fableself
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Gift guide · New baby

A New Baby Gift That Grows With Them

Newborn gifts have a short shelf life; onesies are outgrown by spring. A book that welcomes the baby by name, with the actual family drawn into the pictures, is the one gift still in the house when the child learns to read it themselves.

An illustrated page from a Fableself book, New baby

A welcome story works beautifully with photos of the parents, the nursery, the grandparents waiting by the phone. Soft styles carry it best: chalk pastel, watercolour, Scandinavian minimal.

Ten gentle spreads is a bedtime length, which is exactly right here. Older siblings can be written in too, which quietly solves the "what about me" of a new arrival.

Before you order

When should you order?
Before the birth if you can stand the superstition, because the first three months afterwards are not a period when anybody fills in forms. Ordering during the pregnancy and holding the book until the naming works well, and so does ordering in the fourth month, when the household has surfaced and a gift finally gets noticed. Proof in a few days, printing and delivery one to two weeks after you approve it.
The detail that brings the story to life
Not the weight and the length. The waiting is what makes the book: the name you argued about for six weeks, the drive to the hospital in the wrong car, who cried first. A baby has no history yet, so the story belongs to the people who were waiting for them, which is also why it still reads well in twenty years.
What about the photos, when there are barely any?
One clear photo per person is enough, and it does not have to be of the baby. Newborn photographs are almost always slightly off: dim hospital light, a face half under a blanket, nothing quite in focus. Chalk pastel and watercolour are the two styles that absorb all of that, which is why they come up most for a first book.

Styles that suit the occasion

Four illustration worlds we reach for most often. There are twenty-four in total.

See all 24 styles

How it works

Send a few photos and the moment you want remembered. We write an original story, illustrate every page in your chosen style, and send you a digital proof. You approve it before any payment is taken; then we print and ship the hardcover.

The whole process, step by step

From the journal

Start their book

Most books are proofed within days. Tell us the moment; we do the rest.

Begin the story

Hardcover, $137.50, shipping included. You approve a digital proof before paying.