Made for Yusuf
Board books built for a three-month-old — matched to what a newborn's eyes can actually resolve, and read aloud on every page, in English and Arabic.
English·العربية·Narrated
For brand-new eyes
Nine bold animals in pure black and white, then fifteen bright colours in the order a baby learns to see them — red first, blue last. A little red bird hides on every page.
A true story
The cat Baba Hisham adopted in Oklahoma, the long drive to California, then Mama, then Yusuf. One page steps aside to tell the hadith about being kind to cats.
A true story, for Noah
A shy white kitten Mama and Gedo brought home from a San Diego shelter, who hid all over the house until Mama said she was staying. Then Mama married Baba, then came Noah, and a cat who is very sweet, as long as you pet her just right.
Six little stories, for Yaseen
Starting preschool, soccer training, the trains at Del Mar going BEEP BEEP, and getting ready to be a gentle big brother to his little sister.
A first word
One ordinary moment of the day on every page — waking, washing, eating, going out, coming home — each one opened with the same word. The whole book is one word repeated.
A book of thank-you
Eight plain gifts he already has — two hands, two eyes, Mama's voice, warm bread, cool water, the rain, the cat, a warm bed — and then one more at the end.
A first book of the world
The sky, the sea, the date palm, the bee, the bird, the cat, the moon, the rain. The same question on every page, and the same answer.
Peace be upon him
Eight gentle things he loved — children, a greeting, a smile, a cat, dates and milk, clean water, feeding whoever was hungry, helping at home. There is no picture of him in it, and there never will be.
Each book is a single HTML file plus a folder of audio — no framework, no build step, nothing to install. They work offline once loaded and will still open in ten years.
The artwork is hand-written SVG: a zebra is a white head, five black wedges and two eyes. The second set was drawn by image models running locally on a Mac Studio. The narration is ElevenLabs v4, with delivery written into the script as audio tags — [warmly] to open a page, [whispers] for the goodnight.
Everything regenerates from the transcripts in source/, so a story can be re-cut in a different voice, or a new one added, without touching the pages.