Who people buy these books for

The occasions (8)

A birthday book where the birthday kid is the main character

What to tell us so the story sounds like this year's version of them

A Christmas present that can't get stuck in shipping

How the timing works with no carrier involved, and what to do when it's already late

A gift for the big brother or big sister, not for the baby

When to give it, what belongs in the story, and what a book can't fix

A present from grandparents who live too far to guess

The three questions to ask the parents, and how to read it together from far away

A shower present for the kid who is already there

Who each present at a shower is actually for, and the one case we can't make anything for

A first birthday present that pays off two years later

Sorted by when each present actually gets used, and what a one-year-old does to paper

A Mother's Day present about her kid rather than about the role

What changes depending on who it's from, and how to count back from a date that moves

The part of the basket that is still around next week

What survives the week after Easter, and why the printing has to happen before Sunday

Not sure which page you're on

Pick by the situation rather than by the label.

• You want a birthday present that isn't another plastic thing — Birthday
• Christmas is close and the shipping cutoffs have gone by — Christmas
• A new baby is coming and the older kid is taking it badly — New sibling
• You're the grandparent and you ran out of ideas years ago — From grandparents
• You're going to a shower and everything on the list is for the baby — Baby shower
• The kid turning one can't use anything you would normally buy — First birthday
• You're buying for a mother who says she doesn't want anything — Mother's Day
• You want one thing in the basket that isn't sweets or plastic — Easter
• You haven't decided what to give at all — the guides start a step earlier, with what to look for before you buy anything

What's the same on every one of these pages

The occasion changes what goes in the story. It doesn't change what you're buying, so rather than repeating it on every one of them:

• A 24-page book written for one child, $9.99. The story is built from what you tell us about them, so two children means two books.
• Nothing is shipped. It arrives by email as a print-ready PDF. We print and bind hardcovers in Japan, but we don't ship printed books abroad yet.
• Written for ages 3 to 8. That's the range the stories are paced for, whatever the occasion is.

How long it takes, and the refund that backs that, are in the ordering steps just below.

How ordering works

Three steps, and the first two are done before you close the tab — nothing to install, nothing to post.

• You pay $9.99 and tell us the child's name, age and whatever you want in the story on the payment page.
• You upload two or three photos of them on the page you land on straight after checkout — pick the files and you're done, no email to write. Prefer email? Send them to info@kater.jp from the address you paid with instead.
• The finished book comes back to the address you paid with as a print-ready PDF within 7 business days. If we miss that, you get a full refund without asking.

One thing worth knowing before you count backwards from a date: we're in Japan, so business days here are Japanese weekdays. Weekends and Japanese public holidays don't count, and they don't fall on the same days as yours. How the 7 days are counted is written out on the refund page. If your date is tight, email us before you pay and we'll tell you whether it fits.