Goal
Create an original story from scratch — building creativity, sequencing and storytelling confidence all at once.
You'll need
- Book Cover Template
- Book Jacket Template
- Bookmark Template
How to do it
Hand your child the book cover or jacket template. Their job: design a cover for a story that doesn't exist yet. Title, illustration, author name — theirs, obviously. Don't rush this bit; the designing is half the fun.
Once the cover's done, plan the story together. Who's in it? Where does it start? What goes wrong in the middle? How does it end? They can jot ideas down, draw them, or just talk it through with you — whatever works.
Then: tell the story out loud. You can scribe it if they want a proper "finished book" to keep. But telling it counts just as much. The goal is the story, not the handwriting.
Make matching bookmarks if the mood takes you. Celebrate the whole thing — they just wrote a book.
Grab our resources
Print our book cover template and book jacket template to get started.
