Lloyd and Lauren had a simple question. Their son was two years old. Books were already part of his world, the same ones pulled from the shelf each night, read until the spines went soft. But they wanted something different.
They wanted a book that looked like their family. A book where the child on every page had the same name as the child in their arms. Where the grown-ups in the story were the grown-ups from his actual life. Where the story was his, not one he had borrowed from a shelf.
They looked. Nothing like that existed, not built the way they imagined it. So in 2024, they built Ziggli.
The search that came up empty
Personalised books existed. You could order a book with a child's name dropped into a template. But Lloyd and Lauren were looking for something different: a book where the child's name was the whole point, not a customisation afterthought. A book where the story was built around belonging, around the specific person holding it, and the specific people who loved them.
A book where two mums could both be in the story. Or a single dad. Or a grandma raising her grandchildren. A book where the child on the page could look like their child, with their features, their hair, their world. That book did not exist. So they made it.
The first Ziggli book
The first book Lloyd and Lauren made was about the bond between a child and the person they call their hero. The grown-up who shows up for the plaster-fixing, the sideline-cheering, the silly dancing in the kitchen, all the small, specific moments that add up to the whole of a childhood.
My Hero, written by Jessica Urlichs, was the title that started Ziggli. Families ordered it and wrote back. Parents described the moment their child spotted their own name on the first page and looked up. They described reading it three nights running because the child kept asking. They described gifting it and watching someone tear up before they reached the second page.
Your child opens the book. Finds their name on the first page. Looks up. That look, parents describe it in their first messages to us. Wide eyes, a little disbelief. Then: can we read it again?
Lloyd and Lauren understood they had found something worth continuing.
Every book is made for one child
Ziggli is print-on-demand. Every Ziggli book is printed individually, after a customer builds and orders it. There is no warehouse full of pre-made stock. The book your child holds was created after you chose their name, their features, their family. One order. One book. Printed for them.
That is more than a feel-good production detail. It shapes everything. Ziggli carries no unsold inventory, no books printed for children who never arrive. Every book that leaves the printer was ordered by someone specific for someone specific.
How it works
You build the book using Ziggli's online customiser, choosing your child's name, their look, and the people in their story. Ziggli then prints and ships your order. Ziggli prints in Australia, which means shorter freight for Australian families and no customs delays. Customers elsewhere in the world can order too, Ziggli ships internationally.
The range has grown since that first title. There is now a book for the mum who shows up for everything, a book for the dad who walks alongside, a book about the grandma whose spark lights up every afternoon together, a book about the morning before the first big school day. And a book that puts your whole family inside the same adventure. Nine titles. Each with a different story to hold.
Built for families that come in all shapes
From the first conversation Lloyd and Lauren had about Ziggli, they knew the books needed to work for every family. Two mums, single parents, blended families, grandparents raising grandchildren. The customiser reflects that, you build the family that actually exists, not the one the template assumes.
A child who opens a book and sees a family that looks like theirs reads differently from that moment on. According to researcher Natalia Kucirkova, children show greater engagement and better story recall when they encounter characters and contexts that mirror their own experience. A child who sees themselves in a Ziggli book builds identity and belonging from that page.
A child who opens a Ziggli book and finds a family that looks like theirs reads differently. That is not a side effect of the design. It is the reason the customiser was built the way it was.
The Great Family Treasure Hunt fits families of two adults and up to three children. The other titles each feature a child and one adult, you choose which relationship the book holds. Mum, dad, grandma, daddy figure. The relationship in the book is the one you put there.
Books built to last
Ziggli books are hardcover. The pages are thick enough for small hands to turn without tearing, printed sharp enough to hold colour across years of reading. The binding holds. The paper does not yellow or fray. These are not books you read twice and box away. They are the books that end up on the shelf your child still has in fifteen years.
That durability matters when you are asking a book to do the job Ziggli books do. A personalised book earns its place by being read and re-read, pulled out on difficult nights, on first-day-of-school mornings, on the nights a child needs to know their people are close. A book that falls apart after two years cannot do that job.
More about what goes into the materials and format is in our post on what makes a children's book a true keepsake.
What the research shows
The case for personalised books and early reading is clear and consistent. Children engage more with stories where they see themselves, their name, their likeness, their world. That engagement builds reading habits and vocabulary, and it builds the kind of love of reading that keeps going past the bedtime years.
The full picture of what the research shows is in our post on the benefits of personalised children's books. The short version: a book with your child's name in it changes the way they listen to the story. They pay closer attention. They remember more. They ask to read it again.
That is not an accident. It is the original point.
Still the same question
The question that started Ziggli has not changed. Every child deserves to see themselves in a story made for them. Lloyd and Lauren's son was the first child that question was answered for. He is not the last.
The families who build Ziggli books, parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles, godparents and family friend, bring that same question to every order. The child who opens it finds out their story has already been written. By the people who love them.
That is still what Ziggli books are for.
Their story starts with you
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