The short version

You upload a photo of your child's drawing. The drawing becomes the main character of a storybook — redrawn as a finished watercolor-style illustration that still looks like your child's version. A story is written around it. The book is made. And if you add the movie, the same story is narrated on screen. That is the whole process, and here it is step by step.

Step 1: The drawing

Everything starts with a drawing your child already made — a dragon, a fox, a cat, a superhero. It does not need to be good. It needs to be theirs: one clear character, a face, some color, and ideally one odd detail (three wings, seven legs) that makes it unmistakably theirs.

Photograph it flat, in daylight, phone square above the page. Two or three shots, pick the sharpest. That photo is what you upload.

Step 2: The character

The drawing is redrawn as a finished illustration in a soft watercolor style — the same character, the same grin, the same odd detail, but finished: clean lines, real shading, a proper scene around it. The goal is not to replace your child's drawing. It is to give the drawing the setting it deserves, so the dragon has a meadow to stand in and a sun to smile at.

This is the step that makes parents say "that's still our dragon." The character stays recognizable because the drawing stays the reference for every page.

Step 3: The story

A story is written around the character — a small adventure, built for ages 2–10, that reads aloud well. The dragon smiles big and stretches its lopsided wings. The fox sleeps by the stream while the fish jump. The story is short enough for bedtime and warm enough to be read a hundred times without wearing out.

The story is written for the character, not pasted onto it. That is the difference between a personalized book and a book with a name swapped in.

Step 4: The illustrations

Every page gets its own illustration in the same watercolor style, with the character consistent from page to page — the same dragon on page one and page ten. The book reads like a real picture book because it is one: full-page art, a sentence or two per spread, and the character front and center.

Step 5: The book

The illustrations and the story become a real personalized storybook — the book is $19.99. It is a keepsake in the old-fashioned sense: a physical book to hold, to read at bedtime, to keep on the shelf, and to find again in ten years with the dedication still inside it.

Step 6: The movie

Add the movie ($34.99, or $44.99 for the book and movie together) and the same story is narrated on screen, with the illustrations moving. It is screen time with a story in it — the book your child is already in, read aloud, on the television. Children watch it the way they re-read the book: again, and then again.

What it costs, plainly

  • The book — $19.99
  • The movie — $34.99
  • Book and movie together — $44.99

No subscriptions, no extras, no fine print. You upload a drawing, you get a book — and a movie, if you want it.

What you need to start

One drawing, one photo of it, and five minutes. If the drawing is on the fridge right now, you are ready.

The fridge door is not where drawings go to be forgotten. It is where stories start.

Make the book

Start at sketchbooktales.com — upload the drawing and the book begins. For the holidays, see the personalized Christmas books page.