A storybook no one else has ever read.
Sundayfawn makes one-of-one custom hardcover storybooks, written and illustrated around the people, pets, memories, and tiny details that make your family yours.
Not a template. Not a name dropped into someone else's story. A real book made once - for one person, one family, one moment.
We started Sundayfawn for our two kids. Now we make books for yours too - one book at a time, each made only for the family it belongs to.
We are a husband and wife, with two small co-founders: a two-year-old boy who refuses to sleep without a story, and a baby girl who, as of writing this, mostly just sleeps.
It started on a Sunday - the boring kind, rain on the windows, toys everywhere - reading our son the same supermarket board book for what felt like the four-hundredth time. The little bear was not him. The dog was not our dog. The grandmother on page nine looked nothing like either of his.
He loved it anyway, because children are generous. But we wanted to give him something else.
So we made him a book. Just one. His name on the cover. His baby sister tucked into the story. The blue rabbit he carries everywhere, drawn with the missing ear and everything.
We read it to him that night. He went quiet. Then he pointed at the page. Then he said his own name. He would not let us close it.
We have been chasing that look ever since.
Most personalized books begin with a finished story.
We begin at the opposite end.
Most personalized books
- - a name swapped in
- - a hairstyle changed
- - sometimes the dog changed
- - the same story underneath
A Sundayfawn book
- - nothing exists yet
- - not the story, not the world
- - not the little details hidden on page fourteen
- - written and illustrated around the one it's for
You tell us the names, faces, pets, memories, places, inside jokes, bedtime phrases, and tiny details only your family would know. Then we write and illustrate a story around them. That is why the book can only belong to them.
The little things matter
The details only your family would notice.
The song grandpa always sings
The dinosaur pyjamas
The dog who deserves to be remembered
The phrase only your kid says
The bakery in town
The missing ear
The bedtime blanket
The muddy boots by the door
The nickname nobody else uses
Every book is built from these.
Entry · Sundayfawn
Sundayfawn [sun·day·fawn] · n.
- sunday, n.
- the slow day. The day a book gets read twice. The day someone climbs into bed beside you with a story under their arm and asks for it again.
- fawn, n.
- the youngest thing in the woods. The one you notice. The one you name.
- together.
- the quiet attention you give to one named creature, on the day there is finally time. Which is, more or less, what a book is.
How it works.
I
Tell us who it's for
Photos, names, family members, pets, memories, favourite things, and the little details that make the story theirs.
II
Choose the kind of story
Bedtime, adventure, birthday, new sibling, pet, big feelings, family keepsake - or something stranger and more specific.
III
Shape the book with Juno
Juno is our guided story chat. It helps you shape the book before it prints - rewrite a line, swap a scene, add a detail, or tune the art.
IV
Preview and approve
Review the storyline, your notes, and key scenes. When it feels right, you approve it for print.
V
We press the hardcover
Printed, bound, and shipped to your door. One custom edition, made for the person or family it belongs to.
Who it's for.
Anyone with a name, and someone who loves them.
Our first book was for a two-year-old. The next was for a grandfather. Then two sisters. Then a new baby. Then a mother turning sixty. Then a French bulldog named Olive. Then a family who wanted their old dog to appear one more time, walking beside the children like he always had.
A Sundayfawn book can be silly, sleepy, magical, funny, brave, tender, or heartbreaking in the right way. The only rule is that it has to belong to someone specific.
What we believe
Four things, held quietly.
Make it for one.
A book made for everyone reaches no one in particular. We'd rather make the one that stops a single reader halfway through page three because they realize: this was made for me.
Specifics are love.
The pet at the foot of the bed. The grandmother's nickname. The route to school. Detail is what tells a reader they were actually seen.
Real books matter.
Digital is easy to forget. A hardcover gets read at bedtime, carried room to room, bent at the corners, and found years later by someone who still remembers who gave it to them.
Make it once.
We do not turn your family into someone else's story. Each book is made for the family it belongs to - that is the whole point.
What we promise
Six things, in plain words.
01
A real hardcover.
Proper weight, paper, binding, and spine. Not a PDF dressed up as a gift.
02
Actually about them.
Names, faces, pets, places, memories, and the details only their people would know.
03
Never a template.
Each book begins from the person it is made for, not a name swapped into a pre-written story.
04
Yours to shape.
Use Juno to adjust the story before it prints - rewrite a line, swap a scene, add a detail, or tune the art.
05
Made once.
Your book is made for one person or one family. We do not resell your family's story as someone else's book.
06
Made to be kept.
Read now. Saved later. Found years from now on a shelf by someone who still remembers.
My mum opened it, got to the page with our old dog on it, and just sat there with her hand over her mouth. She read it to my kids that night, and again the next morning. I haven't seen her hold a book like that in years.
From our family to yours
Somewhere out there, a shelf is waiting for one book that belongs only to you.
Let's go make it.
Dom & Nicole
the parents at Sundayfawn · a small family studio in Canada