Firefly Jar

Launch price $59, $79 after 30 November

Your child is the hero. Your child says the magic words.

You read the first half of a rhyme. Your child shouts the second. "I am perfect..." "...exactly as I am!" Twenty-seven affirmations in soft watercolour, painted by AI from your photos, with your child and two to four of their real toys on every page.

Make your child's book$59. The book comes by email within a day. You print it anywhere.

Your photos go to one AI model only, under a zero-data-retention agreement, are never used for training, and are deleted from our servers after 30 days.

A father lifts his laughing daughter in a garden while her goose, bunnies and giraffe watch. The page reads: I am safe, I am loved, and I belong here.

You read the first half, soft and low.Your child shouts the half they know.

Every page is a four-line rhyme and then one line in two halves. You read the first half. Your child says the second, loud. The first night you say both halves. By the third night they are ahead of you.

It works at bedtime. It works in the car. You start a good sentence about your child, and your child finishes it, and you can watch their face change while they say it.

People who see it go quiet. A three-year-old announcing that they can do hard things will do that to a room. The pride lands on both faces at once, theirs and yours.

It works every single time. That is the point. Small wins, said out loud, night after night, are what a big personality is built out of.

“I can do...”“...hard things!”

A girl pulls on her boot with all her might while her toys cheer. The page reads: I can do hard things.

A real page from Naomi's book: the one she says loudest.

“I am proud...”“...to be me!”

What they say out loud becomes how they talk to themselves.

Children learn a voice long before they learn an argument. The sentences they hear most, and say most, are the ones that stay.

This is practice, not magic. Repetition builds habits of thought; the brain keeps what it practises. A child who has said "I can do hard things" a hundred times at bedtime has that sentence ready on the morning it is hard.

You cannot hand a child confidence. You can hand them the words, and read them together until the words are theirs.

Four minutes at bedtime. A voice they keep for life. There is no bigger gift a parent can give.

Naomi knows all twenty-seven by heart now. The part I did not expect is watching her reach for one when she needs it.
Gal, Naomi's dad

It is their book. Their face, their name, their own toys.

Picture the moment they open it. The child in the garden is them. The toys standing around them came off their own bed, and they still have the names your child gave them. Their name is on the title page, in the dedication, and in the last rhyme of all.

  • The enabler

    It lifts, carries and boosts.

  • The copycat

    It does whatever your child does, one beat late and worse.

  • The worrier

    It hangs back with the wrong equipment.

  • The over-reacher

    It reaches too far and gets in the way.

The cast. Toys get parts, not cameos. In your child's book their toys take these four parts, in the order you add them. Two toys fill the first two parts. Four give you the whole cast.

The art. Soft watercolour on cream paper, closer to Beatrix Potter than to a cartoon. The bottom of every page stays quiet so the words sit inside the painting. Your child is drawn from your photos in the style of the book, in one outfit all the way through, so they are easy to find on every page.

Books we have made.

Any child, any family. Every book on this shelf came out of the same engine that will paint yours, from nothing but photos.

Tap a book to see the photos it was painted from.

Maya, with Bear and Pinky.Painted from these four photos.

These are example books, not customers. Amara, Theo, Maya, Noah and Isabella are not real children: we made them up, photos, toys and all, to check that the book works for any child, any hair, any skin, any toy. The covers are exactly what the engine painted, untouched.

Parents, in their own words.

Firefly Jar has only just opened, so there is one quote here and it is mine. We will only ever put real parents on this page, named, about books they actually hold. When the first ones write back, their words go above mine.

  • The cover of Naomi's book: a curly haired girl in a rose pinafore in a garden, with her goose, her two bunnies and her giraffe.

    Naomi's book

    Naomi's goose, waving a wing.Naomi's plaid bunny, mid-jump.Naomi's blue denim bunny, holding a small umbrella.Naomi's giraffe, stretching its neck up.
    Naomi was two and a half when I read her the first copy. By the third night she was ahead of me, shouting the end of every line before I got there. She picks it off the shelf herself now. I made it to give her good words, and then I watched her stand a little taller while she said them.
    GalNaomi's dad, and the person who makes these books

You send the photos. We paint the rest.

  1. 1Send the photos.

    One to three clear photos of your child's face. One photo of each toy, two to four toys, with their names. About five minutes on a phone.

  2. 2We paint the book.

    An AI model draws your child and the toys in the book's watercolour style, page by page, from your photos. We check every page and email you the PDF within a day.

  3. Naomi's book, pictured as a closed hardcover with her painted cover.

    3You print it.

    Or read it on a tablet tonight. When you want it on paper: any print shop, an online printer, or your own printer. The email comes with a one-page print guide.

    Naomi's book, pictured in print. Yours comes as print-ready files, for any printer.

Three chapters. Twenty-seven rhymes. One snail to find on every page.

Chapter one. Eight pages.

Confidence & Self-Worth

“I am perfect...”“...exactly as I am!”

Chapter two. Nine pages.

Resilience & Growth Mindset

“I might not know how to do it...”“...YET!”

Chapter three. Ten pages.

Character, Kindness & Gratitude

“My heart is full...”“...of gratitude and joy!”

The snail

One small snail hides on every page. It is the first thing my daughter looks for, and it is what gets a two-year-old through 27 affirmations.

More pages from Naomi's book

The one that started this. The style, the type and the layout are exactly what you get. Your child's face and hair and your child's toys replace hers. Nothing here is a mock-up.

The title page

I was an angry kid.

I did not have the tools to see the world any other way, and it took me years to get free of it.

When I was fourteen, the mother who drove our carpool looked at me in the mirror and said: Gal, I do not understand. You are such a nice kid, and still you are angry all the time. The sentence never left.

Today I am the father of a three-year-old. The biggest gift I can give her is the one I did not have: a voice inside that says good things, from the beginning. So I wrote her a book. Then I showed it to friends, and every one of them wanted one for their own child.

Gal, Naomi's dad

“The magic words are...”“...inside of me!”

All her life, Dad is with her. Beside her, and inside her. Even when I am not in the room, the words are.

They will stay there long after I am gone. I will live on inside her.

The pages wear out. The voice your child keeps does not.

A small jar of light, handed to one child.

That is the whole plan, and it is why the company is called Firefly Jar. One child at a time, one book at a time.

A child who grows up with a kind voice in their head becomes an adult with one. That voice is with them on the hard days, long after they have outgrown the book. Nothing we could put in a box lasts as long as that.

Every book we paint is one more child who will finish those sentences out loud, and one day read them to their own children.

A father kisses his sleeping daughter goodnight while the goose, the bunnies and the giraffe keep watch. The page reads: No matter what happens, I am always, always loved.

Your child's name is in the last rhyme.

“No matter what happens...”“...I am always, always loved!”

Give your child the words.

One book, $59

Launch price. It goes to $79 after 30 November.

  • The Magic Words Inside of Me, painted for your child: 32 pages, 27 affirmations, your child and two to four of their own toys on every page
  • Your child's name on the title page, in the last rhyme and in the dedication
  • A cover, painted with your child and their toys on it
  • A screen version to read on a tablet or phone tonight, plus print-ready PDFs with a file for print shops
  • A one-page print guide. Delivered by email within a day
Make your child's book

Order by December 10 to have it printed for Christmas. We deliver in a day. The printer is the slow part.

If a page comes out wrong, say so and we repaint it, free. If it is still not right we keep going. If we cannot get it right at all, you get your money back.

Words stick. I want the ones that stick to your child to be good ones.

Naomi's title page.
Theo's test cover.

Questions

What does it cost?

$59 today, for the book and every file. That is the launch price while Firefly Jar is new; after 30 November it is $79. There is nothing else to pay and nothing to subscribe to. Every book is painted from scratch for one child, which is where the money goes.

How do I print it?

Any way you like. Take the print-shop file to a local printer and ask for 8.5 by 11, 32 pages, full bleed, saddle stitched. Most shops do it the same day. Or upload the other file to an online printer such as Mixam, Lulu or Blurb and pick a letter-size booklet. Or print it at home on heavy paper. The print guide in your email says exactly what to ask for, and you can read it before you order: print guide.

What size is it?

8.5 by 11 inches, portrait, 32 pages. That is the size I made Naomi's book in and the size the art is painted for. No other sizes yet. If the printer asks: 0.125 inch bleed on every side, fonts embedded, single pages in reading order.

How long does it take?

Within a day, usually a few hours. Painting the pages takes about an hour; the rest is queue. If a photo gives us trouble we email you before that. Then add the time your printer needs: a local shop is often same day, online printers take one to two weeks with shipping. Order by December 10 for Christmas.

What photos do I need?

One to three photos of your child's face: sharp, good light, looking roughly at the camera, nothing covering the face. Close is better than full body. Phone photos are fine. One photo of each toy, whole toy in frame, plain background. The better the photos, the closer the likeness. Expect your child drawn in the style of the book, not a photo pasted onto a page.

What happens to my photos?

They go to one AI model only (Google Gemini, through OpenRouter), for the character sheet, the pages and nothing else, on a paid plan with a zero-data-retention agreement. They are not used to train anything. Your child's name is never put in any prompt. We delete the photos from our storage 30 days after delivery, sooner if you ask at fireflyjarbooks@gmail.com. Google keeps an automated abuse-screening log for up to about 55 days; that log is not training data either. The full policy: privacy policy.

Can I order it for a child who is not mine?

Yes, with the parent's permission. You are uploading a child's face, so we ask you to confirm that their parent or guardian knows and has said yes, including to the AI part. There is a checkbox for it in the form. If you are not sure, ask them first. Most parents say yes the moment they see a sample page.

What if something is wrong with it?

If a page is off (a toy missing, the face not right, a typo in the name), email fireflyjarbooks@gmail.com within 14 days with the page number and we repaint it once at no charge. If something is genuinely wrong after that, we keep going until it is right. If we cannot get it right, you get your money back. We cannot refund a finished book because you changed your mind; it was painted for one child and is useless to anyone else.

Is it in other languages?

The rhymes are in English. The dedication is yours to write in any language; the original was in Hebrew, so that one we know works. Other languages for the whole book are not ready. Tell us which one you want at fireflyjarbooks@gmail.com and we will count the votes.

Something else? Write to fireflyjarbooks@gmail.com.