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Sample books

Two children. Two stories written just for them.

James and Anna are fictional children we created to show what a Featherbind book looks like. Here are their covers and a few favourite spreads, with lines from each story.

Sample book
Front cover of the sample book “James and the Bookshelf Dragon”: a smiling boy in a blue hoodie sits cross-legged on his bedroom rug reading a green book, with a tiny green dragon perched on his shoulder.

Sample book 1 of 2

James and the Bookshelf Dragon

A dragon no bigger than a teaspoon settles on James’s favourite book and won’t budge. Asking nicely fails, breakfast fails, a brand-new cave fails, until James works out what the dragon is really looking for.

Made for
James, 7
Loves
Animals and magical creatures
Story idea
A tiny dragon who moves into the bookshelf and refuses to leave

14 story spreads and a cover. Here are 5 of them, with lines from the story.

  1. In a sunny blue bedroom, James points up in delight at a tiny green dragon sitting on a big green book on the top shelf of his bookcase.
    Spread 2 of 14

    Sitting on The Big Book of Beasts was a dragon no bigger than a teaspoon. It had green scales like pea pods. It had wings like crinkly crisp packets. It had a VERY cross face.

  2. James, in a blue hoodie, grins as he holds up a plate of toast and a strawberry to a tiny green dragon perched on a book on his bookshelf, in a bright, sunlit bedroom.
    Spread 5 of 14

    James came back with a plate of toast crusts, a strawberry and one cornflake. He set them on the shelf below. “Breakfast, Mr Dragon! Come and get it!”

  3. James concentrates, tongue poking out, as he writes on a shoebox labelled DRAGON CAVE with a round door, felt-tip pens scattered across his desk.
    Spread 7 of 14

    He cut a round door and wrote DRAGON CAVE over the top in his best felt-tip letters. It was the finest cave he had ever made.

  4. In the lamplight of evening, James stands on tiptoe and tucks a hand-drawn dragon page into The Big Book of Beasts while the little dragon watches from the shelf.
    Spread 12 of 14

    He drew the dragon in the middle, cross face and all. Then he stood on tiptoe and tucked the page into the book, right after Dolphin.

  5. At bedtime, James sits up in bed in blue pyjamas reading the big green book, smiling up at the little dragon curled beside a lamp on the top shelf.
    Spread 14 of 14

    “Fact,” read James, loud enough for a dragon to hear. “Dragons can fold their arms.”

How it looks in print

This is spread 7 again as it appears in the finished book, with the story set on the page. Each book is a square hardcover, 20 × 20 cm.

The printed version of spread 7: the story text is set on a soft light panel over the bedroom on the left page, with James making the Dragon Cave on the right.

Open the printed spread at full size

Sample book
Front cover of the sample book “Anna and the Lighthouse Book”: a smiling girl with long red curls, in a denim jacket and yellow dress, stands on a garden path with a lighthouse on the headland behind her at sunset.

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Anna and the Lighthouse Book

Every summer, Pop reads Anna the Lighthouse Book on Lighthouse Night. This year the book has vanished, so Anna turns book detective to find out why.

Made for
Anna, 7
Loves
Reading, magical worlds and daydreaming
Story idea
A summer visit to her grandparents in Noosa

14 story spreads and a cover. Here are 5 of them, with lines from the story.

  1. Anna, in a denim jacket and yellow dress, presses her hands to her cheeks in dismay beside a tall bookcase in her grandparents’ lamp-lit living room.
    Spread 2 of 14

    There was a gap on the shelf. A book-shaped, empty gap. The Lighthouse Book was gone.

  2. Anna lies on a woven rug among cushions, chin in her hand and feet in the air, thinking hard.
    Spread 4 of 14

    “What would a book detective do?” she muttered. A book detective would look for clues.

  3. Anna crouches in a sunlit hallway, shining an old torch on a small grey feather lying on the rug.
    Spread 5 of 14

    There, on the hallway rug, was something small and grey and curled. The gull feather. The Lighthouse Book’s bookmark!

  4. With a feather tucked behind her ear and a torch in her hand, Anna climbs a wooden ladder into a sunny attic room with a round window and a telescope.
    Spread 8 of 14

    “Chapter Four,” Anna breathed. “In Which Anna Climbs.”

  5. In the attic at night, Anna smiles as she opens the blue Lighthouse Book and tucks the gull feather inside, with the moon shining through the round window behind her.
    Spread 11 of 14

    “Chapter Five,” she whispered, and her voice only wobbled a little. “In Which Anna Is Brave.”

Imagine the book we could write for your child

Every Featherbind story is written from scratch for one child. Join the waitlist and we’ll tell you when orders open.

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