Pillowbears

The mechanic

A book the parent fills in,
not one we wrote for you.

You are the author. We make the book beautiful and give it structure. You bring the words only you can hear.

The book

A 20 by 20 cm hardcover.

Soft-touch paper-over-board, Smyth-sewn so it lies flat. The kind of object that holds its shape on a shelf for thirty years.

On the cover: the wordmark in gold foil, the coral P, and, if you add it, the child's first name hot-foiled by hand in Malta. Nothing else.

Pillowbears a keepsake of small inventions For Sam

The prompts

A sticker. A dotted line. A word.

Each page has a spot for a sticker. You apply the one that matches what your child means, then write the word they actually use and what it means.

they say pillowbear for hippopotamus
A hippopotamus, exactly as he said it.
they say ducktire for crocodile
A crocodile, in his own word.
they say quackers for crackers
The nearest sticker, the way the book works.

And the stickers themselves.

Twelve die-cut sheets come with every book. A premium pack of twelve more is an optional add-on. The pictures carry no words, so they fit any language.

The structure

One running dictionary, not an alphabet.

You do not fill it a before b. You fill a page whenever a new word arrives, in any order. Children tend to name the world in a rough sequence, though, and the prompts follow it: food and animals first, then the everyday, then the abstract.

  1. 12 mo

    First words. Family, the body, the everyday objects nearest a baby.

  2. 18 mo

    Food, animals, the things she points at all day.

  3. 2 y

    Vehicles, the natural world, the first verbs.

  4. 3 y

    The abstract. Feelings. Time. Counting. The funny ones tend to live here.

  5. 4 y

    The last toddler-isms. The graceful exit into grown-up speech.

The exchange

What we provide. What you provide.

We provide

  • The soft-touch hardcover
  • The 12 sticker sheets
  • The prompts and the dotted lines
  • The cream sleeve
  • The gold-foil name, if you add it
  • The gift box, if you add it

You provide

  • The words only you hear

That's it.

The point of the book

Your child's pillowbears.

Sam's. Verified, real, and a small fraction of his archive.

  • pillowbearhippopotamus
  • quockqwornpopcorn
  • ducktirecrocodile
  • pungesponge
  • quackerscrackers
  • miching michinewashing machine
  • wallabout you?what about you?

Yours will be different.

Ready when you are.

We are printing a small first run. Pre-order a copy and yours ships first.

Pre-order your copy