What's in Your Akoni Hero Pack: 12 Personalized Printables Included Free
Every Akoni Books order includes a Hero Pack — 12 personalized printables featuring your child as the hero. Bookmarks, lunchbox notes, wall art, bedtime audio, and more. Worth $95 retail; free with every book.
When you buy an Akoni storybook, you don’t just get a personalized book starring your child as the hero. You also get a Hero Pack — a printable bundle of 12 extras featuring the same character, designed to keep showing up in your kid’s day long after the book is read for the tenth time.
This post walks through everything in the pack and the thinking behind why each piece is in there.
The 12 items, end to end
Every Hero Pack PDF includes:
| Item | Format | Standalone retail |
|---|---|---|
| 8 personalized coloring pages | One PDF, 8 pages | $15 |
| Bedtime audio MP3 (custom voice, 3–5 min) | Sibling MP3 download | $12 |
| Wall art print (8×10, frameable) | One PDF page | $12 |
| Heroism certificate | One PDF page | $10 |
| Discussion guide for parents (5 questions) | One PDF page | $10 |
| 6 lunchbox affirmation notes | One PDF page (cut lines) | $8 |
| 30-day reading log | One PDF page | $5 |
| Weekly reward chart | One PDF page | $5 |
| 6 “Ex Libris” bookplate stickers | One PDF page | $5 |
| 4 personalized bookmarks | One PDF page (cut lines) | $5 |
| Activity sheet (maze + dot-to-dot) | One PDF page | $5 |
| ”Hero at Work” door hanger | One PDF page (cut lines) | $3 |
Total retail value: $95+. Cost to you: included with every book purchase ($9.99 digital / $29.99 softcover / $39.99 hardcover).
The whole bundle ships as one printable PDF (plus the audio MP3 as a sibling download), so you print what you want at home or at a copy shop. No physical shipping involved — it’s instant after the book finishes generating.
Why each piece is in the pack
Different items do different jobs in your kid’s week:
Items the kid uses while reading (during the moment)
4 personalized bookmarks with your kid’s image and name. Kids actually use these — they’re 2”×7” so they fit any chapter book, picture book, or library book. Cut along the dashes, optionally laminate for durability.
6 bookplate stickers in classic “Ex Libris” style: This book belongs to [name]. Stick them in any other book your kid owns. We’ve watched a 5-year-old stick one in every single book on her shelf within a week. The first thing she did when getting a new library book was pull off the bookplate sticker (kidding — but she did want one for it).
Items for ongoing engagement (across the week)
30-day reading log with your character cheering at the bottom. A 6×5 grid of empty stars, one per day. Color one in each day you read. Habits get built faster when there’s a personalized character watching.
Weekly reward chart — same idea, smaller scale. 7 days × 5 stars. Good for “we’re going to do reading together every night this week” challenges.
8 coloring pages generated from the actual illustrations in your book. Same character, same scenes, but in line-art form for coloring. We use a custom NB2 line-art conversion that preserves character likeness while removing the color, so your kid recognizes themselves in every page.
Items for the parent (you)
Discussion guide with 5 questions to ask after reading. We picked questions that build empathy + decision-making language (“If you were [name] in the story, what would you have done differently?”). Each question has a one-line note for the parent on what skill it builds.
Bedtime audio MP3 — the full story read aloud in a custom voice. ~3–5 minutes per book. Play it from your phone when you’re too tired to read aloud, or when your kid wants to hear the story for the seventh time.
Items for the kid’s broader day (away from books)
6 lunchbox affirmation notes — small cards (3.5”×2.5”) with your character + a personalized message. “You are brave, [name]!” / “Be kind today.” / “You can do hard things.” Cut and slip one into the lunchbox each day for a week.
8×10 wall art print — the same character at large size, frameable. Drop it into any 8×10 frame and it becomes bedroom decor. Many parents use this as the kid’s first piece of “self-portrait” art on their wall.
Items that are pure fun
“Hero at Work” door hanger — kid hangs on their bedroom door knob during quiet time. Hero side out for “I’m playing important games, do not disturb.”
Activity sheet with a custom maze + dot-to-dot puzzle. ~10 minutes of independent quiet play.
Heroism certificate — gold-bordered, kid’s name in big gold type, framed reasonably well. Goes on the fridge or in a frame.
Why we include all this for free
Most personalized book companies sell the book and stop there. We made the bet that bundling all the printables together would do three things:
- Make the purchase feel obviously worth it. A $30 purchase with $95 of value feels like a good decision. Conversion rates back this up.
- Build a daily presence in the kid’s life. A book gets read 10–20 times. A Hero Pack shows up in lunchboxes, on bedroom doors, on book shelves — for months.
- Set up the eventual subscription. We’re going to launch a monthly “Hero Pass” later this year ($4.99/mo) that drops new printables featuring the same character every month. The Hero Pack proves the concept first.
What the Hero Pack does NOT include
We try to be honest about what’s in the box vs not:
- Physical printing. You print at home or at a copy shop. The PDF is sized for standard US Letter (8.5×11) so any home printer or any FedEx / UPS Store works.
- Sticker paper. The bookplates and lunchbox notes work on regular paper too, but they’re better on Avery 5168 or generic full-sheet sticker paper if you want them to actually stick.
- A frame for the wall art. Standard 8×10 frame from Target / Amazon / dollar store all work.
- Lamination for bookmarks. Optional — some parents laminate, some don’t. Bookmarks survive a few months either way.
How to get one
The Hero Pack auto-generates after every book purchase — no extra step. Click “Download Hero Pack” on your book page after payment is confirmed.
If you don’t have an Akoni book yet, here’s where to start:
You’ll upload a photo, pick an art style and a story theme, and get a personalized illustrated book in about 5 minutes. The Hero Pack arrives a few minutes after that.
A note on the math
The $95+ retail value isn’t a marketing number we made up. We checked Etsy + similar sites for what each item would cost as a standalone personalized printable:
- Personalized lunchbox note sets (5–6 cards): $6–10
- Personalized bookmarks (4 per sheet): $4–7
- Personalized bookplate stickers: $4–6
- 8×10 personalized wall art: $10–15
- Custom-voice audio storybook: $10–20
- Personalized coloring book (8 pages): $12–18
Adding it up gives a conservative $95. Many parents pay more for any one of these when they shop them individually. The Hero Pack bundles all of them with a character that’s actually their kid, not a stock character — and ships them all in one PDF the moment your book is ready.
That’s the whole pitch. The book is the headline; the Hero Pack is what makes it feel like a complete gift.