Make a children's book yourself, or have it made?

The short answer

Make the book yourself when the making is the gift: an afternoon with the grandchild, sticking in photos, writing sentences beside them. The result is one of a kind, and nobody expects it to look like it came from a shop.

Have it made when you want a book that looks like a real picture book, with drawn pictures and a story, and when you have one evening for it and not a month.

Most grandparents want the second and underestimate what the first costs. What a personalised children's book from a maker is and can do is in the guide; here it is about the comparison.

Route 1: the crafted book

A blank book or stiff paper, photos, pens, glue. You write the story yourself, usually about the last holiday or everyday life, and stick a photo on each page. Time: an afternoon to a weekend. Cost: 10 to 25 euros of material (as of November 2026, without guarantee).

Strengths: it is truly from you, the child can join in, and the photos are real. Weaknesses: it does not last long, there is only one copy, and anyone who cannot draw has photos instead of pictures.

For a memory book this is the right route. For a picture book in which the child has an adventure it did not have, with the dragon or in outer space, it is not.

Route 2: designed yourself and printed

With a photo-book program you design the pages on the computer, upload photos, write text and have a bound book printed. Time: several evenings to weeks. Cost: mostly 20 to 50 euros per book, depending on pages and binding (as of November 2026, without guarantee).

Strengths: it looks like a printed book and lasts. Weaknesses: the pictures are photos, not drawings, you must write the story yourself, and anyone who struggles with the program gives up after the third evening.

Commissioning your own drawings from an illustrator is the loveliest route and the most expensive: reckon with several hundred euros and a few weeks.

Route 3: the personalised book from a maker

You upload a photo, enter the name and age, choose a story and write the dedication. From that comes a picture book with drawn pictures in which the child plays the lead on every page. Time: one evening. Cost at Amberro: the eBook €7.99 incl. VAT, by e-mail usually the same evening, anywhere in the EU; the hardcover with eBook €37.98 incl. VAT plus €5.95 shipping, within Germany only.

Strengths: it looks like a picture book from a shop, with your own child in it, and you see it as an eBook before anything is printed. Weaknesses: the story is one of eight, not your own, and the figure is a drawing from the photo, not a copy.

How a photo becomes the figure is on children's book with photo; whole books on the examples page.

The three routes compared

Time: crafted a weekend, designed yourself several evenings to weeks, from a maker one evening.

Money: crafted 10 to 25 euros of material, designed yourself 20 to 50 euros per book, from a maker from €7.99 as an eBook (other sellers' prices as of November 2026, without guarantee).

Result: crafted a keepsake with photos, designed yourself a printed photo book, from a maker a picture book with drawn pictures and a story.

Our advice: for the memory of a summer, the crafted book, ideally together with the child. For a picture book to read aloud, for a birthday, the first school day or Christmas, the personalised book. Both together is no contradiction; one costs time, the other one evening. How grandparents give it is on a gift for your grandchild.