I am writing some books! I need your help!

[Drama Llama]

OK, I know that half of you are thinking "Ummm, how do I say this politely, I've seen your grammar and spelling and . . . "

And the other half are wondering "Will the title disappear and get replaced by 'Thanks'"?  

But it's true, I am!

One of our go to baby gifts is personalized picture books.  My nephew has one that has a picture of each family members and the worlds "God Bless Mommy" or "God Bless Grandpa".  We've replaced it a few times because it's been so well loved, and also so that the pictures of the kids are the current age.   My guidechild's one says "Daddy loves John" and "Aunt Beulah loves John" on each page, since his parents aren't religious.  

I want to make a new version this summer for each of them, to update pictures, and to include BIL/SIL's new baby who is due in June.  I was thinking for the toddlers (nephew will turn 2 this summer, guidechild just turned 2) I might do alphabet books.  So, D is for Daddy, G is for Grandpa etc . . . 

But I have questions! 

1) Do aunts and uncles go on the A and U pages or on the first letter of our first name?  One of my nieces has put a lot of effort into teaching her little brother her own first initial, and now he can pick it out.  It happens to also be my first initial, and he is fascinated by this idea that somehow it's his sister's and also mine. He will hold it and say "Brianna?  Aunt Beulah?" (note: I am grateful not to be named Beulah* just subbing a name for privacy).  So, do I go on the "A" page or the "B" page?  

2) My other question, is what is the threshold for being "family".  My oldest niece has a partner who she lives with.  He comes to lots of family things, and goes on family vacations with us.  He's the vegan I cook for.   Would you put him in?  

Then I have questions for my future baby niece too.  

BIL is bilingual English/Spanish and SIL was raised with another language as her first language but is now more comfortable in English, and they hope to raise the baby bilingual English/Spanish with some exposure to mom's language.  

One idea I had was to make the pages with text in a different color for each language.  When I used to work with preschoolers, many of whom were ELL, the advice we got was to label things in the classroom with consistent colors, so that the Spanish label was always red, and the Amharic label was always blue etc . . . So I thought maybe I could make a page with whatever the repeated phrase is in all 3 languages under it.  My other thought was to do speech bubbles, so that the text under the picture just read "Grandpa" or "Aunt Beulah" and then the speech bubble would be in the language that person was most likely to use.  So, the one over Pop would say "I love you, Katie" and the one over her Dad would say "Te amo Katie".  What do people think?  

*apologies in advance to any boardies named Beulah.  It is a lovely name, it just doesn't suit me, mainly because I can't spell it. 

Edited February 3, 2023 by BandH
edited for all the reasons I have no business writing books.

[thatfirstsip]

1. I think organized by name initial, not title, but I also don't think there's a clearly incorrect answer here

2. I think include him.

[maize]

Regarding the threshold for family, I think it would depend on how long-term the relationship appears to be. If the partner has been in the family for awhile (as it sounds) and can be expected to stick around at least for the next few years (the period in which the books are likely to be used) I would be inclined to include him. Family, to me, means partly "the people who will stick with me through thick and thin" though of course circumstances don't always meet that ideal.

[Harriet Vane]

24 minutes ago, thatfirstsip said:

1. I think organized by name initial, not title, but I also don't think there's a clearly incorrect answer here

2. I think include him.

This is where I lean as well. 

[Innisfree]

I think you could choose whichever initial helped fill out the alphabet best: so, Aunt Beulah, Aunt Betty, Cousin Benedict, Uncle David. If there aren’t the right assortment of initials to complete the alphabet, how would you handle that? (I don’t think that would be a problem, just something to consider. Maybe you have an Uncle Xavier, or maybe you need to include “John likes to play the Xylophone.”) My point is just that variation in the format may be necessary in any case, so I’d just embrace it from the start.

Either method, balloons or different color text, sounds good for the different languages, but I like the idea of repetition on each page, so maybe I like the balloons more.

Personalized books are a lovely gift.

[Drama Llama]

1 minute ago, Innisfree said:

I think you could choose whichever initial helped fill out the alphabet best: so, Aunt Beulah, Aunt Betty, Cousin Benedict, Uncle David. If there aren’t the right assortment of initials to complete the alphabet, how would you handle that? (I don’t think that would be a problem, just something to consider. Maybe you have an Uncle Xavier, or maybe you need to include “John likes to play the Xylophone.”) My point is just that variation in the format may be necessary in any case, so I’d just embrace it from the start.

Either method, balloons or different color text, sounds good for the different languages, but I like the idea of repetition on each page, so maybe I like the balloons more.

Personalized books are a lovely gift.

When I made "alphabet" books at school for early emergent readers, I usually just figured out the words I wanted them to learn, and then skipped the other letters.   Later in the reading process, I might want to include all the letters and have kids have a sense of alphabetical order, but for a 2 year old, I don't care. 

So it will probably go something like this

A is for Cousin Alex.

B is for Brianna

B is for Bubbe

B is for Aunt Beulah

B is for Uncle Bob

B is for Baby Ben

and then, for example, we have no F's, so it will just go from E is for Edward to G is for Grandpa.  There are lots of letters we don't have.  No Cousin Xavier, or Aunt Yvonne. 

I also thought about keeping people in family groups, and photo shopping Alvin and the Chipmunk style shirts on everyone.  So, the book would start with M is for Mommy, D is for Daddy, B is for Brianna . . .  and forget ABC order altogether.  The only problem with that, is that one of the reasons I really want to make a new book, is that his current one is organized with aunts and uncles together, and I really don't want a picture of me and DH in there.  

[stephanier.1765]

I did something sort of like this for my youngest except it wasn't family related, it was kid related. So the "H" page had pictures of him wearing different hats, the "A" page had pictures of him with his brother Andrew, the "B" page was him with his stuffed Barney and so on. We still have that book. One of my favorite things I ever created for my kids. Just an idea for going in a different direction or for future books.

Edited February 3, 2023 by stephanier.1765

[SKL]

I think for Aunt / Uncle (a / u)  you could include a group photo of aunts / uncles.  (Or if you already have an A but not a U, a group photo for "uncles and aunts" under "U").

But I'd use the name initial for the ABCs.  You could put "uncle" in a smaller font than the name and put the initial in a bigger / bolder / colored font for emphasis.

I think I'd include the unmarried partner since the individual is behaving and being treated like a family member.

I like the idea of a word bubble using the pictured person's main language.  But if they're trying to raise a child bilingual, I'd also put each sentence in both languages on the bottom (or whatever text margin ... or one language on top and the other on the bottom), using a specific color background or font for each language.

[J-rap]

I'd list aunt and uncle names under their actual names.  Otherwise if you have multiple aunts and uncles, they'd all be listed under A and U.   You could write it like "(Aunt) Betty" and "(Uncle) Bob" if that makes it seem clearer, but I don't think you'd have to.

Dad and Mom and such would be different because you are using the entire word as their complete name and identity.  

But if you listed "Mr. Smith" I'd put it under S.