The Night Before Everything Changes
For some children it's excitement. For many it's dread. For most it's both at once. The first day of school is the first time many children are asked to be brave without their parents. A personalised story about their own courage — read in the days before — can change how they walk through that door.
Courage Has to Be Practised Before It's Needed
The first day asks a child to do something hard: enter an unknown place, without their known people, and perform confidence they may not feel. Most preparation is reassurance — 'it'll be fine' — which skips the feeling the child is actually having.
Reassurance doesn't reach the part that's scared
"You'll love it" lands politely. "You'll be brave like the child in your story" lands deeper.
We read it every night for two weeks before school started. On the day, she picked up her bag and said: I'm like Hana in my story. I know how to be brave. I genuinely had to hold myself together.
A parent, Cairo
A felt experience of courage, in narrative form
When the protagonist is them, your child gets to practice being brave before being asked to find it in the real morning.
What your child gains before the morning
Courage
A first-day-of-school story built around your child — premium, reviewed, and ready before the big morning.
See CourageStories for the First Big Step
Read together in the week before school starts. Your child's name in the story. Their face in the illustrations.
The flagship story for any child facing something new and frightening. Personalised to place your child at the centre of their own brave moment.
For the child who is most anxious about making friends. A story about discovering your own openness — personalised to be unmistakably them.
What Happened on the First Day
"We read it every night for two weeks. On the first day she picked up her bag and said: I'm like Hana in my story. I know how to be brave. I had to hold myself together on the pavement."
"He was terrified of starting school. We ordered the book three weeks early. By the morning of the first day he was more excited than scared. The story gave him a character to be."
Give Them Their Courage Before They Need It
Order 2–3 weeks before school starts. Personalised, reviewed, and approved before printing.
Start Their Story