At certain times of year, your child's library has a shelf of books for the season, and the book maker offers them a seasonal story. Nothing seasonal is ever chosen for your child: their own book only becomes a seasonal one if they press the button for it.
The seasonal shelves
We write a small number of books for each season ahead of time. They go through every check that a family's book goes through, and then a person reads each one before it goes into the library. Nobody is charged for them.
While a season is open, a shelf with its name appears in "Everyone's books", your child's library, on the "For you" tab, ahead of the other shelves. Each shelf gathers books from the library whose themes fit the season, including the ones we wrote for it. A shelf only shows books written in the language your child reads in, and a shelf with nothing on it for your child is not shown.
| Shelf | When it is open | For ages |
|---|---|---|
| "Starting something new" | 15 August to 20 September | 2 to 9 |
| "When it gets dark early" | 1 October to 24 November | 2 to 12 |
| "Gently spooky" | 15 to 31 October | 5 to 12 |
| "Winter stories" | 25 November to 31 December | 2 to 9 |
| "Cuentos de invierno" | 25 November to 31 December | 2 to 7, in Spanish |
| "Trying something new" | 1 to 31 January | 5 to 12 |
| "Everything is growing" | 1 March to 31 May | 2 to 9 |
| "Long summer days" | 1 June to 14 August | 2 to 12 |
These dates follow the seasons north of the equator. In a country south of it, the library shows "Starting something new" from 15 January to 20 February for ages 2 to 9, along with "Trying something new" in January, and leaves out the northern shelves. When we cannot tell which half of the world a family is in, we show the northern shelves.
The winter shelf does not name any festival, because we do not assume which one your family keeps.
Halloween
The "Gently spooky" shelf is only for readers aged 5 and up. Readers aged 2 to 5 see "When it gets dark early" instead, which is open all through October and treats the dark as interesting rather than frightening.
Halloween books are written to be gently spooky and never frightening: pumpkins, costumes, a friendly ghost or a walk in the dark with a flashlight, with no gore, nobody in real danger, and every surprise ending in a giggle. They still follow all the rules for your child's age group.
A seasonal book of your child's own
While a season is open for your child's age, the first step of the book maker, "Who is in your story?", shows a button with the season's name, and Pip asks whether your child would like a story like that. The buttons are:
- "A first day story"
- "A dark evening story"
- "A Halloween story"
- "A winter story"
- "A new year story"
- "A spring story"
- "A summer story"
The button is off until your child presses it, and pressing it again turns it off. When it is on, the season becomes one of the ingredients of their book; they still choose everything else as usual. When two seasons overlap, the button offers the more specific one, so a reader aged 5 or over sees "A Halloween story" in the second half of October.
A seasonal book your child makes is an ordinary book in every other way. It uses books and is checked in the same way as any other. If the season has ended by the time your child presses "Make it", or the season is not one for their age, they get an ordinary book instead.
The book maker explains the other steps, and The library explains the rest of your child's library.
If you would rather your child did not see a particular kind of story, Topics to leave out explains the limits you can set.