bibbly

A library, starring your kid

Give them the world.
One board book a month.

A board book shows up every month, starring your kid, illustrated in the style you picked. Mara's been carrying hers around since she was ten months old.

Start your universeSee inside a universe

Mara's World - Crayon on cream

Here's how it works

1
Build your cast
Turn your family into illustrated animal characters. In our family Daddy's a bear and Mara's grandma is a cat named Gigi. Your baby is the hero of every book.
2
Pick an art style
Crayon, watercolor, whatever one looks like your family. Once you pick a style, every book you ever receive stays in that style.
3
Books show up at your door
Each month, a new printed board book arrives - age-matched to your child, starring your family, ready for bedtime.

Not a template

The book that works at ten months doesn't work at three

We made Mara's first book when she was ten months old. When we gave a copy to our friend whose kid is three, he flipped through in thirty seconds and asked if there was a different one. So every month the book we ship is tuned to where your kid is, not where ours is.

6-12 mo
The Peek-a-Boo Year
where Mara is now
Where Mara is right now. She chews corners, kisses faces on the page, and we read the same one so many times that I've memorized the second spread. The book is hardcover for a reason.
12-24 mo
Pointing at everything. 'What's that?' twenty times before breakfast. The book that works now is one with a word under every picture.
2-3 yr
They start asking what happens next. Same book, same order. Skip a page and they'll catch you.
3-4 yr
They want a kid in the book who had a bad morning at school. Because their morning was bad too.
4-5 yr · The Hero Year
They want to be the kid who shared the last cookie, or owned up to breaking something, or tried the thing that scared them.

Inside every Story Box

What lands at your door

The book
A 10-page board book
Hardcover, printed by Pint Size Productions in Atlanta. Your kid is the hero and your family shows up as the supporting cast. The trim size and page thickness is what Christina picked when Mara was ten months old.
Art
Your art style, kept
The style you pick in your first book sticks. We don't swap it out on you. Most services we tried before building this one changed their illustrations every few months and it made the books feel like they belonged to nobody.
Extras
Activity cards
What works for a 10-month-old and a three-year-old is different. Some months it's sensory cards. Some months it's coloring sheets.
From the hero
A letter
'Dear Mara, this month you learned to stand up. Love, Mara.' Tucked in the box. Sometimes silly, sometimes sweet.
Stickers
Die-cut characters
Peel, stick. Daddy Bear, Mommy Fox, Gigi Cat end up on the fridge, the crib rail, the back of a car seat.
Packaging
Ships ready to open
Every box arrives tied with a ribbon. Mara figured out how to pull the bow before she could walk.
“

We made a board book for our 10-month-old Mara as a vacation surprise. I turned her into a happy dinosaur. I became a bear, my wife a fox, her grandma a cat named Gigi.

She slept with that book, kissed the pages, and screamed when we tried to read her anything else. Six months later we were still the dinosaur family at every bath time.

Bibbly is what we built to let any family make that book, in the art style you pick, for the years your kid wants one.

Andrew Templeton, co-founder
Christina Templeton, co-founder and clinical advisor
(and Mara, now 18 months, still asks for her book every night)

Authority underneath

Built by a pediatric nurse, a Bayesian engineer, and their kid

Founder voice
Andrew Templeton, co-founder
I built the preference engine under Bibbly - the part that figures out what your kid is into, so next month's book is better than last month's. I also happen to be Mara's dad. My camera roll has over 14,000 photos of her. I'm biased about whether books about her are good.
Clinical advisor
Christina Templeton, co-founder and clinical advisor
Christina is a pediatric nurse practitioner. Fifteen years in pediatrics, most of it with babies and toddlers, and every day she works with speech pathologists on feeding and early language. When we were building Mara's first book, Christina picked the page count and the physical trim herself, and she told me, correctly, that I had no idea what was going to hold a ten-month-old versus a three-year-old.

Mara is the reason any of this exists. She's 18 months old and the first reader of every book.

Real books from real families

4 universes, 19 books, 4 art styles. Tap any to browse.

Mara's World
Mara's World
Crayon on cream - 13 books
Luna's Reef
Luna's Reef
Watercolor blues - 2 books
The Khari Chronicles
The Khari Chronicles
Gouache on kraft - 2 books
Rosie's Kitchen
Rosie's Kitchen
Colored pencil - 2 books

What we thought about

What else gets fifty bucks a month from a new parent

We tried three different prices before landing here. The one we charge now is less than what we were already paying for the toy subscription we just canceled, and roughly what we'd pay once for a personalized book our kid is done with in a month. Here's what else is in the same neighborhood of monthly spend.

Generic personalized books
One book, your kid's name dropped in. We own one. Mara likes it fine, but it's a fill-in-the-blank.
$39
per book
Monthly toy subscriptions
Nicely designed wooden toys. We subscribed for eight months. The toys all worked, but not one of them became the thing Mara carries around the house.
$80
/mo
Adventure / activity kits
A generic adventure box. Same contents to every subscriber. Not a story, just a box of stuff.
$25
/mo
Bibbly Story Box
The book we made for Mara, for your family, every month.
$49.99
/mo
Start your universe

$49.99/mo, or $129.99/quarter (save 13%). Cancel anytime.

No risk

Build a free digital book first

Make your characters and generate a first digital book without putting a card down. If your kid asks for it again the next night, subscribe and the printed version ships. If the book didn't click, the digital one is yours anyway.

Create your free book

Skip any month. Cancel anytime from your account. Every book you make is yours forever, even if you leave.

When a grandparent becomes a character

Mara's grandma is a cat named Gigi. That's what Mara decided, and there's no taking it back - Gigi shows up on every page of every book Mara gets. Gift a Story Box and whatever animal your grandkid picks for you, that's who you'll be in the books for a long time.

See gift options

Andrew builds the engine. Christina is a pediatric nurse practitioner with 15 years in peds. Mara is 18 months old and still asks for her book every night.

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