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Product Details
- Binding: Toy
- EAN: 9780963679604
- Feature: Make your own book kit allows children to write and illustrate their own story Receive a color-copied, professionally type-set book in a few short weeks Children get to design cover and write About the Author biography page Mail in story in the prepaid envelope, or create book entirely online. Includes 18 book pages, 2 cover pages, 10 washable markers, story web planner, instructions, order form, and prepaid envelope
- Label: Creations by You
- Publisher: Creations by You
- Studio: Creations by You
Editorial Reviews
IlluStory
Write and illustrate your own book!!
Imagine your child's face when she or he sees their own story and drawings made into a professionally typeset, hardbound book! With this multi - award winning kit, you simply have your child write and illustrate their story using the materials supplied in the kit, which are then mailed in (in the pre-paid envelope provided) for publication. You'll soon receive a beautiful, professionally typset, 12 page, 7" x 9" hardcover book, complete with an "about the author page", title and dedication pages and your little author's name, title and drawing laminated on the cover. Extras books are optional and make great gifts for grandparents. Winner of Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award, Parents' Choice Classic Award, Family Life's Best Learning Toy Award and Dr. Toy Best Toy-Classic Award.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Our son has written 2 books with Illustory already! He loves seeing the words that he writes typed onto the pages (by the company) and the drawings he does come out beautifully printed on the book. He is so excited and proud of himself when he shows his friends, family and teacher his publications! The book even comes with an About-the-Author page just like real published books! Everything that you need to write and draw is provided in the kit and the instructions are very easy to follow. In just a few weeks you get back a real hardcover book! The experience was so terrific, we plan on having him write a book each year so he can see how much his writing changes year after year. And just as soon as his new baby sister is old enough, we'll start her writing books with Illustory too. The books are a great family keepsake. We love them
Move over Harry Potter! by Mother of a future a
Thank you for carrying this terrific product. My kids love to read and one day my son told me he wanted to write his own book someday. I saw this kit and thought I would give it to him to try. The process was simple. He wrote his story, added pictures and we dropped it in the mail in the postage paid envelope (which was great-by the way) that was included in the kit. My son actually forgot all about it and about 2 weeks later our mail carrier knocked at our front door with a package addressed to my son. I can't even describe the look on his face when he took out his book. He looked at every detail and couldn't wait to show everyone his masterpiece. He has written several books now and I enjoy seeing his progress unfold. I highly recommend this kit to any parent that has a child even remotely interested in reading or writing. What a value!
This kit is TERRIFIC!! by By A Customer
Quite simply this is the coolest toy I have ever purchased. My children love writing their stories and drawing their pictures and then having it all published in a real harback book with their words typed on the page. They are so proud of their books--they show them to everyone who comes to the house! The instructions were easy to follow and the quality of the finished book is exceptional! We do a new book every six months or so and order extra copies and give them to the grandparents. Our library is becoming quite large. It makes a neat birthday gift too. Thank you for making such a wonderful product.
Watch out -- only limited text is allowed! by Curious Wren
Beware! -- this kit only allows 20 words per page and only contains 12 pages. I returned it because I wanted something where my 10-yr-old neice could write a short story.
(I think this is why it's recommended for ages 5-9.)
A fun and educational gift! by LibraryPiper
As a teacher, I had to buy this gift for my seven-year-old niece. She loved making her own book, and the finished product that they send you is very professional looking, like a book that you would purchase from a store. They even included some tips and activities to help children write their stories, including diagrams for pre-planning and brainstorming. My niece loves her book and shows it off to everyone - she even took it to school and got to read it at storytime. This is a great educational activity that really gets children to be creative, and they love it. Buy it for all of your favorite kids!
Too few words by D. Griffin "Mountain
This is such a wonderful concept, but 20 words a page is too few, even for my five year old. It is very limiting to imagination and descriptive storytelling when you are constantly told, "Oh, sorry sweetie, that won't fit."
Frustratingly, the kit promises an advanced option with unlimited words, but you have to use the computer for the whole thing. My five and six year old clearly want to make the drawings themselves!
best kids creativity item ever! by MistyMae
Illustory is really awesome! Last year we did it for the first time and it turned out so cute! We gave one for a gift and kept one. It is a little costly but worth it! Def. send in a pic of your little writer because that is so neat how they write "About the Author" and your little one's face is in the book just like a real author and they describe his or her likes or dislikes. This cost extra but really made the book. I def. recommend this. You will see how your child gets better at writing each year if you do it yearly like we are doing.
Great! by Dale Scott
We bought this for our 10 year old grandson last Christmas and he LOVED it. He is interested in animals and he wrote a book about 'dangerous' animals. He had a great time doing it. The finished product is great. His parents had another copy of the book printed by the seller and sent it to us as a gift. We will always cherish it!
This is fabulous!! by By A Customer
My daughter received this as a gift. She LOVED creating her story. We had lots of fun together with the planning and the layout and she really enjoyed being able to express her creativity so freely. When the final product, a hardbound copy of her story arrived, she was so excited. Now we read her story often and it is so neat to know that the words and illustrations are her own. We also bought this as a gift for my friend's son (his sixth birthday) and he loved it as well. My daughter recently asked me if we could get another kit so she can make another story. I definitely will get this for her again. It is a wonderful gift and also a great keepsake for years to come.
Love this product! by Tami Bradley
My 7 year old received this as a Christmas present. She was so excited to write her own book, we added the about the Author page and she wrote and illustrated the story. We bought one book for our family and the second book we dedicated to her school teachers and gave it to the school on Teacher Appreciation Day with a note that we wanted the book to be placed in the library. Now all of my daughters friends and others can check the book out of the library and they love it!
I highly recommend this as a gift to anyone.
Write and Illustrate for your grandchildren by Diane Sultzbach
I know this is meant for children, but I decided to buy it for myself. I am writing stories about my childhood that I am sending to my grandchildren. It is a wonderful way for them to get to know a little about me and have something to keep to remember me by. I love it.
Your little author will have a ball with this! by Shabby Chic Lover
My 8 year old daughter is not the princess/fairy/doll type of girl. She'd much prefer to write a short story, complete with her own illustrations. After having a few completed masterpieces sitting about the house, my daughter lamented that she wished she could have it published 'like a real book'. So my search began, and ended, with this product. She received it as a Christmas gift, and almost immediately began working on her story (titled 'I'm a Superhero!'). Following the simple, clear instructions in the package, we were able to send off our manuscript for publication. It did take a little bit to receive the completed product back; in fact, I even emailed the manufacturer to inquire about it as I was worried it may have gotten lost. Never fear, though, it arrived shortly afterward, and my daughter was thrilled with the hardcover book which she had written, illustrated and designed (by choosing the book color, fonts, etc.) I love the 'About the Author' page too, and it's so worth it get it printed with your child's picture. Imagine her face when she sees it! We even purchased a second one to give to her on her birthday, and this time we tried the internet option. The advantage here is that you can make the text of each page as long as you want, instead of the rather restrictive 20-word limit per page on the mail-in version. The drawback, though, is that the drawings will not have that kid-drew-it innocense since the illustrations are also made on the computer. Having done both versions, I think we'd stick with the internet version from now on, so she can write more and more complex stories as she gets older. For a child who loves to write and draw, what better gift could they receive than the ability to publish their very own hardcover book? Something that they - and you as the parent - will cherish for years to come!
Pride in a Hardcover by "alexgrace9497"
My sister bought this book for my five-year-old daughter. I thought she was too young for it, so set it aside for about 6 months. While it took quite some time to lay out the story, it was worth every second. She really loves her book, took it to school and went to each of the classrooms to read it. One teacher called me and asked for the information so that she can do it with her entire first grade class. It's a great idea and was a great gift!
AWESOME by Kristine E. Wittling
This was a gift to our 5 year old son for his birthday and the finished product is going under the Christmas tree for grandparents this year. What a wonderful and creative idea. My son had so much fun creating his story and we spent a lot of quality time together in the process.
Great to Teaching Reading and Writing by Nancy G
This is a great opportunity to engage your child in an uninterrupted discussion about a particular topic. Your child will learn to organize his/her thoughts on paper; thus creating a story. These are excellent skills for beginning readers and writers.
I am using this opportunity for my 6-year old son to create a book for my husband's 40th birthday. He has to think of a title and the sequence for a story entitled, "Why I love my dad". It was also my gift of choice for Chanukkah and Christmas to other 5 and 6 year olds.
What a great product! by lindabobinda "Lmurdo
I can't say enough about Illustory! My daughter is 6 and in Kindergarten and loved to make stories on paper stapled together. So, Santa brought her an Illustory kit and we did it together as she can't write many of the words yet. So, she drew all the pictures and told me what she wanted to story to say. We got our book in the mail yesterday, and she was so thrilled to see her story bound like a real book! The quality was great, and it even had the dedicaton page and an "about the author" page with her picture (which I provided). We even ordered an extra copy for grandma with a dedication to her! I highly reccomend this kit!
Great idea for kids! by By A Customer
This product rewards any child's effort and will become a treasured family keepsake. IlluStory is a great way to get children excited about reading and writing.
My 6 yr old LOVED this by M. E Flanagan-Paull
My 6 yr old daughter loved this gift. The kit was simple and easy to understand. She wrote her own story one day, and we mailed it the next. There were no additional charges, not even for shipping, because we only wanted 1 book. The turn-around time was reasonable - I think around 4 weeks. The final product was beautiful and very solid. She ran around the house saying, "I'm an author! I can't believe it!" We will definitely buy this product again in the future and we recommend it to others.
Create a book by Wendy G. Wallio
This is great for those creative stories that your children write. The story can be illustrated and will be a lasting keepsake for your family. I highly recommend this.
This is an excellent product for children to be creative, understand process and become confident. I love this product and give it as birthday gifts.
Great parent/child project by Toddler MOM "LA"
I have bought this for three different girls ages 6-8. They have all enjoyed creating their own book. It also comes out really nice when it is printed. A wonderful little activity for a girl or boy in that age group.
We love this book! by L. Riley
We created our book online (you use the code from the kit to get your online book.) My daughter loved picking out all the colors, backgrounds, clipart, etc. We spent a couple weeks creating it, a couple pages at a time. When it was shipped to us I was pleasantly surprised with the quality. One page had some colors that were wrong (not what we had created) and I called them and they immediately fixed, reprinted, and sent us a new one. I was very pleased with the customer service! I just ordered two more to give as birthday presents.
mom for educational fun by W. Hawkins "hawkw"
I bought one for my 7 year old daughter who absolutely loved it, so I bought one for my 6 year old son. She loves showing it off with family friends and even at school. My son is just starting to work on his but is excited after seeing her finished product.
The hard book cover seems durable but only time will tell if it says in good condition, so I gave that catagory a 4 star.
I have since bought my now 8 year old daughter more of these and she still loves it. It never gets old for her.
Wonderful for a budding writer! by Lucy Adams "If Mama"
Ordered the kit so my 7 y.o. son could transform a story he wrote into a keepsake book. He loved the process and the final version is exceptional. It is possibly the first step on a long and successful career.
Lucy Adams, author of If Mama Don't Laugh, It Ain't Funny
I purchased our first Illustory four years ago. My two daughters used it to make a book for my husband's birthday - "Why I love Daddy". It is a keepsake he will always treasure. My 9 year old daughter received another one for Xmas and created a book "My favorite animals". It's so nice to have something she can look back at when she is grown. The completed books are very well made, and the images are transferred perfectly. I just ordered one for my 5 year old goddaughter. I highly recommend this product!!
Nice Finished Product. Perhaps A Bit Expensive by J. Weber
This is a nice idea, though basically they take the same paper that you draw on and bind it. We wanted more pages, and better quality paper than the thin paper they provide, but that cost us an additonal fee to upgrade when we sent the pages in. It did come out very nicely, and my 7 year old is very proud of her work. Overall we were happy, and unlike many other presents, this one was fun and left us with something she can show her friends and look back at later in life.
With this kit you or your child(ren) can write up to 12 pages of text, each with its own illustration, send it off to the company, and receive a professionally printed hardbound book in a few weeks. There are even options to get gift books, each with its own unique dedication page! An 'About the Author' section really personalizes the experience.
Everything you need is in the kit -- instructions, paper (including practice sheets) and pens. There's even a postage-paid envelope, so when you're finished writing you can just drop it into a mailbox. We could not be happier with this product. It was fun and easy, brought out the kids' imagination, and the product we received was beautifully finished.
Highest recommendation.
A Complete Joy! by Shirley Priscilla J
Being an author and reviewer when my grandchild asked for this kit as a present I was thrilled. It's always nice to see a child want to follow in your footsteps. Was it worth the money? You bet it was.
Inside is everything that was needed for her to use to create her first book. The instructions were easy to follow and she got right to work.
What a great book was made. Her illustrations were exactly as she drew them and she was thrilled to see her very own story come alive. She loves being able to share it with others and it has given her great pride to see she has a book just like her Grammy.
This is well worth your money and will bring a lot of joy and happiness to any child that receives it. I am proud to recommend this product.
writing for the young person by Ruthann Marshall
I bought this book for my grandughter that is 10 years old and loves to write stores. It was a wise pick for me , as it is right at her age level. Easy to understand , Easy to follow directions . For any child that loves to write stores, or to encourage a child to write it is a great book.
I did this over 15 years ago, and I still have it by Laurie
back when I was an aspiring author, my parents bought me one of these for my 7th birthday. It was probably my all time favorite childhood gift, and I still have it somewhere. I look back and laugh over the funny things I wrote and my terrible artistic skills. It was about a girl whose mother left her in an orphanage that locked her in the attic.I can't wait to give one of these to my own daughter in a few years! :)
Great for Memories and for NOW! by K. L. Hawkins "SemiM
My son is now working on his second book - after last year's success, we will be doing a book every year (he's 6 now). The book takes time to do properly, and certainly needs an adult's help at this age, but the end result is more worthwhile than virtually any other gift he's gotten. The look on his face, seeing his name and story and pictures put together in the beautifully bound book... I'll never forget it, and I never have to. It happens every time he reads HIS book! Highly recommended
Great idea; watch out for the pages you submit w/ artwork by co
I would have rated this lower, but the idea is so great. My 7yo loves his book.
Be careful w/ the pages you submit. We ordered two books and the first book contains the original submitted pages w/ artwork (except the cover which was scanned and reprinted on "glossy" paper). The 2nd book was, of course, all photocopied pages of the first.
They simply take your submitted artwork pages and someone (or possibly an OCR), prints your submitted text just under your drawings; then binds the pages into the book, with the title page , dedication page, etc.
Not as sturdy a book as I thought it should be, but as I said, my kid loves it, so that's what matters most. <grin>
This is a Must for All Children by Kaydee
I bought this for my daughter when she was 7 years old. She wrote and illustrated a story on the paper provided using the included markers, and we sent it off in the POSTAGE PAID envelope as the directions indicated. A BEAUTIFUL hard-cover story-my daughter's story-came back to us. My daughter was so proud. Now we have a wonderful keepsake of her writing as a 7 year old. This kit is educational, fun and meaningful. I am buying it again for my daughter now that she is 8, and when my 4 year old son learns to write I will buy one for him too. And, I will buy this item again and again. It makes the perfect gift. It is well worth the price. And, what a wonderful way to encourage a child's creativity. This is a quality product. I'm glad it's out there!
Son loved this! by Tammy L. McClain
My ten year old son got this for Christmas from his grandparents...he LOVED this so much! Not only the fun of creating his own story (which of course was based around Star Wars), but the anticipation of receiving his book, to finally getting it and reading it to us as a family and then taking it to school (which he ended up reading to his school's second grade classes cause they thought it was so cool). There were kid's in his school that thought he was famous...he thought it was cute. Anyway I highly recommend this toy...very educational, kids get to use their imagination and have a finished product to share and cherish for years to come. Can't go wrong here...in fact I may end up getting some kits for my other boys.
Great Keepsake by Karen "Mom of 3"
I have had each of my children make their own book using the IlluStory kit. They love to look back at their art work and story year after year. It is a great keepsake. We now give them to friends for birthday presents so that they can make their own books too.
Great fun for parents and children by A. PT Avvampato "con
Illustory is a wonderful way to preserve childhood memories. It's easy to use and comes with everything you need to write and illustrate a simple story. My six year old son and I had a blast putting it together & can't wait to see the final product (the bound book).
A great project by JDH "Mom of 3"
I bought this kit for my daughter and she used it to make a Chritsmas gift for her grandmother. She had a wonderful time creating the story, and the end result was really nice. The price is reasonable given it includes shipping and the finished book. Since we were giving a gift, the extra charges for additional copies and rush shipping were worth it to us. Overall, a great deal for my second grader.
I had gotten this for my daughters 7th birthday, she was always finding bits of paper around the house and trying to write stories on them. She absolutely loved the gift. I had her start writing the story out on regular paper and then I helped her get it going when she was done. I made sure to count all her words and after we got the story down on the papers I told her that all she needed to do was draw a picture of what was happening in the story on that page. She did a great job. I finished filling out the paperwork and sent it in. I received an e-mail letting me know that they had gotten the story and that her book would soon be here. When she got the book she said was very pleased with how her book turned out. There were no miss spelled words and the pictures looked great! It looks absolutely beautiful, she brought it to school and everywhere. I plan on getting another illustory for her this year as well.
On the topic of miss spelled words...there is a box that you can check to have them keep the spelling the way it was written (in the case that your kid wrote it out and spelled something in a very unique manner and you wanted to keep it that way forever!)
Love this! by K. Brown "kellybrwn7
Got this for my 6-yr old daughter's birthday. It was easy for us to do together. The great fun was getting the completed, hard-bound book back in the mail! She was so proud to be an author! She even took it to school to show her class. It's a great gift & a great keepsake.
Why buy the kit when you can do it all online?? by Jennifer Wise
We purchased this kit for my step-daughter for her birthday since she is always drawing and loves to create her own books. We paid twenty dollars for it thinking that she would draw and write the story and we would mail it out and get a book in return. SURPRISE! You have to buy the kit and then pay another fee that costs as much as the kit to have the book "published" (along with other nominal fees to add things to make the book worth owning). I think the thing that bothered me the most is that you are able to go online and DO THE SAME EXACT THING WITHOUT PURCHASING A KIT! You pay 22 dollars and draw your book online! I wish I would have known that so we could have avoided the rip off of purchasing the kit. For what it's worth, my step-daughter LOVES creating the book online. Before you buy this, check out the website and save yourself twenty bucks.
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