The Talebrix book: size, paper, pages and layout
A Talebrix book is a portrait picture book, 148 × 210 mm, 296 × 210 mm when it lies open, with 26 printed pages. It is printed page by page into a blank book that is already bound, made with thick, smooth 250gsm paper. The cover carries the title, a picture and the child's name as the author, and the spine carries the title, the author and the Talebrix logo. The book is the same size at every age. What changes is the writing.
Last checked 5 November 2026 by Tom McDonough, Co-Founder and CTO
Talebrix is not on sale yet, and production is targeted for June 2027. This page describes the design, and it will change if the design does.
The book, in figures
| Page, closed | 148 × 210 mm, portrait |
|---|---|
| Open spread | 296 × 210 mm, landscape |
| Pages | 26 printed faces |
| Paper | Pre-bound blank books made with 250gsm smooth paper |
| Ages | 3–8 |
| Story Pack | 4 blank books, £15 (target launch price) |
The cover and the spine
The cover is shown on the screen before anything is printed, and nothing is printed until the red button is pressed. It has the Talebrix logo, the title and one picture, and the child's name as the author.
The name is the profile name a grown-up chose when setting up, which can be a nickname. Whatever was typed is what is printed.
The spine has the title, the author's name and the Talebrix logo, in a colour chosen to go with the cover.
The picture in words
A white cover. The Talebrix logo at the top, then the title, Who Is Awake at Night, in two colours. A yellow ribbon reads “Made by Zara”, and the picture fills the lower half.
How a page is laid out
Each opening is one picture across both pages, with the words of the story set in the sky at the top of each page, where they can be read aloud without hunting for them.
The picture in words
One picture across both pages, with the words of the story set in the sky at the top of each page. a: The words, set in the sky at the top of each page. b: The picture, painted edge to edge across both pages. c: The fold down the middle of the book. d: One page, 148 × 210 mm. e: The book open, 296 × 210 mm.
The same book, written for different ages
The page count and the size never change. The number of words on a page does, from about 5 for the youngest listener to about 44 at 8, and so does how long it takes to read aloud. A grown-up sets each child's reading level once, when setting up.
| Age 1, shared reading | About 5 words a page, 2 minutes to read. A few words a page, mostly naming what there is to point at. |
|---|---|
| Age 2, shared reading | About 6 words a page, 2 minutes to read. Big shapes, one line a page, and plenty of repeating. |
| Age 3 | About 9 words a page, 2 minutes to read. Short rhyming lines. Nothing to work out, just rhythm. |
| Age 4 | About 14 words a page, 3 minutes to read. Simple sentences, with something familiar coming back every few pages. |
| Age 5 | About 20 words a page, 4 minutes to read. A small problem turns up, and gets solved kindly. |
| Age 6 | About 28 words a page, 5 minutes to read. Longer sentences, a bit of humour, one new word a page. |
| Age 7 | About 36 words a page, 6 minutes to read. Chapters in miniature. The character wants something and gets in her own way. |
| Age 8 | About 44 words a page, 7 minutes to read. Richer vocabulary, and a turn near the end they will not see coming. |
What is not known yet
We have not yet checked how well a book stands up to being read every night for months, and the machine has not yet printed a whole book from start to finish. This page will say what we find once we have.
Questions families ask
- What is a Talebrix book made of?
- The planned format is a 26-page 148 × 210 mm portrait book using pre-bound blank books made with 250gsm smooth paper, printed page by page. The book itself is the same at every age; what changes with the reading level is the words, and how many there are on a page. We have not yet checked how well it stands up to months of bedtimes.
- What can a Talebrix book be about?
- Whatever they say — a bin lorry that goes to space, a detective who is also a cat, a spider who turns out to be polite. It is not a personalised version of somebody else’s story, and the writing is pitched at the age of whoever is listening. It handles the ordinary things too: starting school on Monday, or somebody being in hospital.
- How is Talebrix different from a personalised book?
- A personalised picture book puts a child’s name into a story somebody else wrote. This one has no story in it beforehand. The subject is whatever the child says it is, which is why the examples look like that — no publisher would print a book about a house that ran away because it had had enough, since there is a market of exactly one for it, sitting up in bed next to you.
How this page is kept true
Every number on this page is read from the same facts the rest of the site uses, so when a fact changes the page changes with it. The date at the top changes only when a person has read the page against the product.
- First published.