Your Filipino Child Is the Hero of Their Own Storybook

A book with your child’s real face on the cover, Lola and Kuya written into the story, and an adventure that belongs to them alone — drawn from one photo, ready in minutes.

Why Filipino kids deserve to see themselves on the page

Walk through the picture-book aisle and the shelf tells a thin story. Plenty of heroes, but rarely one who looks like your child, and almost never one whose family sounds like yours.

Kids notice. They notice that the family in the book has one grandma who visits on holidays, not a Lola who lives one flight away or calls every single morning to ask whether they wore a jacket. They notice that nobody in the story calls an older cousin Kuya or Ate, and that the hero’s name is never Mateo or Isabela with a home nickname nobody at school knows. They notice that birthdays in books are small and quiet, when their own mean a folding table of cousins and a line of kids waiting to mano each elder who walks in the door.

Filipino families are everywhere, from Daly City to Jersey City to Honolulu to the Bay Area, and for many, video calls to family in the Philippines are as ordinary as homework. That is a rich, ordinary childhood, and a child who sees a version of it in a book learns something simple: my life is the kind of life stories are about. Kids ask for the book they can see themselves in again and again. A book with your child’s face on the cover, and the people they love written in by name, is the most direct way to make that happen.

How Akoni draws your child — and writes your family in

You start with one photo. It is the only picture Akoni needs, and the one the illustrator works from: your child’s face, the shape of their eyes, the way their hair actually sits, and their real skin tone, rendered as it is rather than flattened into a stock avatar. The hero stays consistent from the cover to the last page. Before you pay, you see a free preview of the cover and the opening pages, so you can check the likeness first. Your photo is deleted within 24 hours, is never shared, and is never used to train AI models.

You choose how the book looks from nine art styles: Whimsical Watercolor, Bold Cartoon, Soft Pastel, Anime / Ghibli, Modern Flat, Pixel Art, Retro Golden Book, 3D Cinematic and Paper-Cut Collage. A kid who lives for anime gets the style they love; a gift from Lola might suit Whimsical Watercolor or Retro Golden Book.

Then the story is written for your child — their name printed exactly as you type it, their age, and the theme and interests you pick, whether that is dinosaurs, karaoke night, sea turtles or a much-loved stuffed dog. Only the hero is drawn from the photo, but the people around them belong in the story too. On the create page, open Deeper customization and use Include in the Story to name them — Lola who runs the kitchen, Lolo and his garden, Kuya who is impatient and kind, the baby sister who copies everything, the Tita who is not technically related. They are written into the story by the names your child actually uses and illustrated from your description. Choose the grandparent-love theme and Lola or Lolo is at the heart of the book from the first page.

A gift that lasts longer than the party

A book with your child on the cover lands at a first birthday, a seventh birthday, a new baby, a Christmas that in many Filipino homes starts humming the moment the ber months arrive, or simply the next time Lola flies in and wants something to read with the little one on her lap. For relatives abroad it closes distance: a Tita on the other side of the world can order it, have the dedication signed “From Tita”, and be part of bedtime from thousands of miles away.

Every Akoni book has 16 illustrated story pages plus bonus pages — an activity page, discussion questions, a certificate, a coloring page and fun facts — and a dedication page with a warm message written for your child and signed from whoever you choose. Every order also includes the Hero Pack: free printables starring your child, including coloring pages, wall art, stickers and bookmarks.

The digital PDF is $9.99 and is ready in minutes, which makes it a rescue for the party you forgot about. Softcover is $29.99 and hardcover is $39.99, printed 8 by 8 inches; printed books ship in 5–7 business days with shipping included, printed by Gelato and shipped to 55 countries, including the Philippines, the US, Canada, the UK and most of Europe, so a copy can reach cousins overseas as easily as the next state. Three hardcovers, one for each cousin, are $99. A bilingual edition adds $10 and pairs English with Spanish, French, Portuguese or Mandarin Chinese on every spread. Each book is designed for ages 2–10, and every order carries a simple guarantee: if your child does not light up when they see themselves in the book, email within 30 days of delivery and you get a full refund — and they keep the book.