Board book manuscript · ages 1–3
A tiny hero with a cape and a very loud voice. You never see their face until the last page.
The idea started with a two-year-old walking a full cup across the room, saying “upright!” to herself. And touching a necklace, saying “gentle.”
That’s the whole thing, actually — the outside voice becoming the inside voice. The book just gives that voice a cape.
The manuscript
Every spread is the same shape: the left page sets up a small everyday peril, the page turn delivers the shout. Once a toddler catches the pattern they’ll shout it before you do — which is the entire point of the book.
Somebody small.
Somebody quick.
Somebody with a cape
and a very loud voice.
Art Back view only. Superego is palm-sized — smaller than the child — perched on a shoulder, boots off the ground. We never see the face. Cape is the one saturated shape on an otherwise pale page.
Full cup.
Wobbly walk.
Juice goes sloooosh—
Art Superego riding the rim of the cup, arms out like a tightrope walker. Juice meniscus tilted a few degrees past safe. Nothing has spilled yet — the book never shows a disaster, only the moment before one.
Shiny necklace.
Grabby hands.
Fingers go yank—
Art Superego swinging on the chain like a bell rope. This word must be recognizable at a glance later — same lettering, same colour when it comes back on spread 09.
Big bowl.
Little arms.
Blueberries go tip—
Art One blueberry has escaped and is mid-bounce — the only rule-break in the book, and it’s comic, not scolding. Superego is bracing the far lip of the bowl with both boots.
Tall stairs.
Small feet.
One step… two step… whoa—
Art Vertical composition — the only spread where the art runs tall. Superego already has one hand on the rail, modelling it rather than commanding it.
Sidewalk stops.
Big road starts.
Sneakers go zoom—
Art Biggest lettering in the book — one syllable, full bleed. Superego is planted on the curb edge with both arms out. Keep the road empty; the tension is the edge, not a car.
Big dog.
Sleepy dog.
Little fingers reach for fur—
Art The peril is in the hands: fingers curled and spread, about to take a fistful of fur. Superego stands on the dog’s back holding one hand out flat, palm down — demonstrating the fix rather than naming the fault. Last loud spread in the book; the drop to whisper on the next turn should feel like a cliff, not a slope.
Baby asleep.
Big news to tell.
Mouth opens WIDE—
Art No burst, no colour field, no exclamation — the one page where the lettering is tiny and lowercase. Read it aloud in an actual whisper and the toddler will too. Superego has a finger to where their lips would be, still facing away.
Daddy hurries.
Daddy bumps the table.
Daddy says, “ARGH—”
Art Same lettering as spread 03, but small and lowercase — and Superego is nowhere in this spread. First time in the book the voice arrives without the cape. The reader should feel the swap before they can name it. Swap “Daddy” for whatever she calls you.
But wait.
Where is Superego?
Art Three small vignettes in a row — empty sky, empty roof, empty under-the-bed with one lost sock. Deadpan. The cape does not appear anywhere on this spread.
Listen.
Closer.
Art The three phrases float as faint ghost-letters circling the child’s own head — inside the ear, not outside it. Reuse the exact lettering from spreads 02, 03 and 05 so the eye recognizes them before the brain does.
Oh.
Art Superego finally turns around, and it’s her. Delighted, not stern — this is a book about being capable, not about being good. Small line beneath, set quiet, for the grown-up: You are Superego. (Cape optional.)
Art direction
Superego is drawn from behind or in silhouette for eleven spreads. The face is the last page’s only job. Break this once and the ending is gone.
Palm-sized. Perches on cup rims, shoulders, the dog’s back. A helper who fits in your hand, never an adult looming from above.
No spills, no falls, no crying. Every peril is caught one beat early. The book’s emotional register is near-miss and grin, never consequence.
Shouts are hand-drawn into the illustration with a burst behind, not typeset. Pre-readers need to see that it’s loud. Same word always drawn the same way.
Risograph feel: fluorescent pink and blue overprinting, yellow only for bursts and highlights. Rotate the accent spread to spread so page turns feel like a beat.
Six shouts in a row through spread 07, then the floor drops out: whisper → gentle, Daddy → almost nothing. The ending lands because the book got quiet, not because it got big.
Make it yours
Every household has its own five phrases. Yours already produced two of the spreads. Drop new ones into the same three-beat setup and they’ll scan.
Phrases that fit the meter
Inside back cover
The superego is a joke for you and a fact for her. It is the part of a person built entirely out of borrowed voices — the ones that used to come from across the room and now come from inside.
You have been lending her yours. Upright. Gentle. Hold on. For a while a child repeats those out loud, in your cadence, sometimes back at you, which can sound like cheek and is actually the handoff.
So read it with a pause. Set up the peril, turn the page, and wait. She’ll fill in the word. That’s the whole mechanism of the book, and roughly the whole mechanism of the thing it’s about.
Production
| Format | Board book, 7 × 7 in square, rounded corners, 2 mm greyboard |
|---|---|
| Extent | 24 pages / 12 spreads, including title spread on pp. 1–2 |
| Word count | 124 words, ~10 per spread. Above the usual 50–100 for age 1–3, but the repeated three-beat setup means a toddler is only ever tracking one new word at a time. Trim by cutting a whole spread, never by shortening lines. |
| Gutter | Board book gutters are thick and stiff. Keep all type and all faces at least 0.75 in clear of the fold; no character crosses it. |
| Trim safety | 0.5 in from every edge for type; 0.25 in bleed on colour fields |
| Type size | Shouts 60–120 pt hand-lettered; narration 20 pt minimum, heavy rounded sans |
| Ink | 4-colour process simulating 2-ink riso, or true riso for a short run. Fluorescent pink will not CMYK-match — pick the process build early. |
| The art here | Concept roughs, generated with gpt-image-1 to lock the palette, the character design and the staging. Treat them as a style bible for a human illustrator, not as press-ready files — they are raster, inconsistent at the pixel level, and not colour-separated. |
| Short-run options | Pinhole Press or Mixbook for a one-off gift copy; Blurb for 25+; a real board-book printer (e.g. QinPrinting) from ~250 copies |