Write a Personalized AI Storybook for Your Grandkids (Using Real Memories)

Part 2 of our Playing with AI series

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Just joining us? Part 1 of this series walks you through making a custom coloring book together — a great warmup activity before this one. Start there if you’d like →

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Here’s something AI cannot do on its own: it doesn’t know that your granddaughter refuses to go anywhere without her stuffed rabbit. It doesn’t know that your grandson once got “lost” in the backyard for twenty minutes and came back claiming he’d discovered a new country. It doesn’t know the inside jokes, the family nicknames, the summer your family rented that cabin with the leaky roof and laughed about it for years.

That’s where you come in.

In this activity, you supply the real people, the real memories, and the emotional truth of the story. Your grandchild sits at the keyboard and helps shape it into something AI can work with. The result is a five-page storybook — illustrated, printable, and entirely one-of-a-kind.

Time needed: 45–60 minutes Tools: ChatGPT free tier · Adobe Firefly free tier What you’ll make: A five-page illustrated storybook, ready to print or save as a PDF

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Before You Begin: You Are the Story Expert

AI is very good at arranging sentences. It is not good at knowing which stories matter.

Your job in this activity is to answer questions your grandchild will ask you. Don’t worry about how AI works. Don’t worry about the typing. Just be ready to remember.

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Step 1: Choose Your Story Seed

Grandparent role

Pick one real memory or one real thing you love about this grandchild. It doesn’t have to be dramatic. Some of the best storybooks come from small, specific moments:

• The time she insisted on wearing rain boots every day for a month, rain or shine
• How he always asks for “the crunchy kind” of everything
• The afternoon you two baked cookies and burned the first batch together
• Her habit of naming every animal she meets, including insects

If nothing comes to mind right away, try this: What’s something this child does that you hope you never forget?

Write it down in a sentence or two. This is your story seed.

Grandchild role

Listen carefully. Ask a follow-up question if you need more detail — “What happened next?” or “What did it look like?” You’re going to help turn this into a five-page adventure.

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Step 2: Build the Story Arc Together

Grandchild role

Open a browser and go to chatgpt.com (free as of early 2026 — check site for current plans). Sign in or create a free account.

Start a new conversation and type this prompt — filling in what your grandparent just told you:

“Help me write a sweet, five-page children’s storybook for a child who is [age]. The main character is named [made-up name or nickname — see sidebar]. Here is the real story idea we want to base it on: [paste grandparent’s story seed]. Each page should have 2–3 short sentences. Keep the language simple and warm. End with a happy, cozy moment.”

Grandparent role

Read the story ChatGPT writes out loud together. Now this is your job: edit it like you mean it.

• Does the character sound right? Change any detail that feels off.
• Is something missing from the real memory? Tell your grandchild, and they’ll ask ChatGPT to add it.
• Does a page feel too generic? Say so: “That part about the forest — in our story it was actually the backyard. Can we change it?”

Your grandchild will relay your notes back to ChatGPT with a follow-up message like: “On page 3, can you change ‘the forest’ to ‘the backyard’ and add that she was wearing her red boots?”

Go back and forth until the story feels true to your family.

Grandchild role

Once you’re both happy with all five pages, copy the full story text into a document (Google Docs works great) and save it.

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Step 3: Illustrate Each Page

Grandchild role

Open a new browser tab and go to firefly.adobe.com (free as of early 2026 — check site for current plans). Sign in with a free Adobe account.

For each of the five pages, type a description of what the illustration should look like. Base it on the story text you just wrote. A good prompt follows this pattern:

“Watercolor children’s book illustration of a small girl in red rain boots jumping in a puddle in a backyard, sunny day, warm and cozy style”

Grandparent role

Look at each image as it generates. You have veto power. If something looks wrong — the hair color, the setting, the mood — say so. Your grandchild can adjust the description and generate again. Firefly gives you several versions each time; pick the one that feels most like your family’s story.

Save each illustration to your desktop or downloads folder, labeled by page number.

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Step 4: Put It Together

Grandchild role

Open your saved document with the story text. For each page, paste the corresponding illustration above or below the text. A simple layout in Google Docs or even Pages on a Mac works fine — no design experience needed.

When all five pages are assembled, go to File → Download as PDF (or Print → Save as PDF).

Grandparent role

You now have a storybook. Print it at home, or take the PDF to a local print shop and ask for it to be printed and spiral-bound. Many office supply stores offer this for a few dollars.

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Playing It Safe

Use made-up names or nicknames for any children in the story — not their real full names. Don’t include addresses, school names, or other identifying details. For the full safety rundown, see the sidebar in Part 1 of this series.

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Ideas to Make It Your Own

• Series format: Make a new book every visit. Same character, new adventure each time.
• Grandparent as character: Ask ChatGPT to write you into the story too.
• Gift version: Print an extra copy to give at a birthday or holiday.
• Read-aloud recording: Some families record audio of grandparent reading the finished book, then store it alongside the PDF.

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Coming Up in Part 3

Your grandchild drew something amazing. What if it moved?

In our next Playing with AI installment — “Bring Their Drawing to Life” — we’ll show you how to photograph a child’s original drawing and turn it into a short animated clip using free and low-cost tools. No art skills required on either side. Just a drawing, a phone camera, and a little wonder.

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Part of the Playing with AI series — simple, screen-free-friendly activities for grandparents and grandkids to create something real together.