Two children drift through a round porthole on the cover of Young Carers in Space. One wears pale blue pyjamas and a cloud of red curls; the other floats in a silver spacesuit with see through fairy wings, raising a wand tipped with a gold star. Hand lettered white capitals arc across a lavender galaxy, and a pink planet carries the byline: Ana Graça.
Ana wrote and illustrated the book, and John published it through the Young Carers Illustrations Project. Its readers are the youngest young carers, children of primary school age who help look after someone at home, and the story was shaped in workshops with children from Kingston Carers Network, Imago and Enfield Carers. Copies go out free across the UK through councils, children’s charities and young carers groups, with the support of the Carers Trust. In May 2026 it became the first book about young carers ever read on CBeebies Bedtime Stories, and the CBeebies YouTube upload of that reading has since passed 2.5 million views. Our team printed it as a 210mm square booklet, and this page follows it in the order things happened.
CBeebies Bedtime Stories and 2.5 million views on YouTube
On bank holiday Monday, 25 May 2026, actress and presenter Natalie Cassidy opened Young Carers in Space for CBeebies Bedtime Stories. The reading anchored the BBC’s Caring Matters Week, which ran from 23 to 30 May with television, radio and online programmes about the millions of unpaid carers across the UK. Imago, one of the charities whose young carers helped shape the story, marked the moment as the first book about young carers ever read on CBeebies. John emailed us the next morning under the subject line “On the Tele !”.
The story follows Honey, a six year old young carer who looks after her autistic brother, Pip, on a journey to a magical planet where children’s voices are heard. Natalie reads beside a teddy bear wearing a badge that says Your Voice Matters, which carries the whole book in three words.
CBeebies added the reading to its YouTube channel in early June, and by October 2026 it had passed 2.5 million views. It sits on BBC iPlayer too. Watch Natalie read it here:
Those numbers matter most to the children the book was written for. Young carers from Imago’s Southwark service sat in a workshop with Ana and John while the story took shape, so children who rarely find their own lives in a picture book heard one told on national television. Jo, Workforce Development Manager at Imago Young Carers, called it “A fantastic platform to raise awareness of young carers!”
From where we stand, the broadcast and the printed copies work as a pair. Viewers meet Honey on screen, then young carers services put the square booklet itself into small hands, where a child can turn back to a favourite page at their own pace. A television slot lasts about six minutes. A free book on a bedroom shelf goes on working for years.
A bunny book set the template
The story starts a year earlier with Young Carers in Bunnyland, Ana’s first picture book for the project. John came to us as a newcomer to publishing, and later wrote that “As a first time publisher, I didn’t have a first clue how to proceed”. Our very first quote put the cover on 300gsm silk, with a note from Mike that silk takes gloss lamination better, and the inside pages onto FSC certified uncoated paper.
That template held. In June 2025, with Ana already colouring a second book, John asked for prices on the same square format. Mike checked one thing first: whether colouring meant black line art, as in a colouring book. It did not. John explained the routine instead. The text is agreed, Ana draws every picture, and once the drawings are approved she paints them digitally in full colour. The new book grew to 28 inside pages on 120gsm uncoated FSC paper, printed four colour throughout and wire stitched inside its laminated cover.
Settle your format on the first title and a series becomes easy to extend. Every sequel can be ordered in a sentence, and the books sit together on a shelf like siblings.
Curved lettering that looked jagged
In August, John sent the finished layout and asked us to cast an eye over it ahead of proofing. He admitted he might not spot a fault unless it was glaring. Most of the files were ready to print. Mike flagged one detail: the lettering looked slightly jagged, almost pixelated.
Ana tracked it down within the hour. Every line of curved type in the book had broken up when she exported the PDF, and she replied that “I have fixed that by rasterizing the curved type!” A fresh file arrived the same afternoon, John and Ana signed off the proof, and the boxes reached John with weeks to spare before the launch on 18 October 2025, held aboard the Golden Hinde in London.
Type set along a path is a common culprit. If your cover title bends round an illustration, zoom right in on the exported PDF before you send it, because an export setting can turn smooth curves into steps that only show at print size. For the remaining file checks, see how to build PDFs for a stapled picture book.
Why this spec suits a free book that travels
These booklets travel. They are posted out free on request, given away at events and used by young carers services across the UK, so the cover has to survive plenty of handling. The silk board under a gloss film wipes clean and keeps Ana’s violets and pinks saturated. Inside, the uncoated stock gives a soft, glare free page for reading aloud under a bright lamp, and 120gsm has enough body that small hands turn it without creasing. Stapling keeps the cost per copy low, which matters when every copy is given away.
The square shape suits picture books that open wide on a lap. If you are weighing formats for something similar, our guide to square trims and page stocks for picture books compares the options.
A reprint, a Japanese edition and news from the BBC
Over the following months the project kept growing. A space themed edition of About Me, the activity booklet that goes out alongside the picture books, arrived as A4 artwork. Mike pointed out that an A5 booklet would need it resized to 210 x 148mm with 3mm extra round the edge, and Ana redid the artwork to suit.
In April 2026 John wrote with news. Young Carers in Space had been chosen for CBeebies Bedtime Stories, the book had been translated into Japanese for publication in Japan, and the Local Government Association had highlighted its use as good practice. He needed to top up supplies before the broadcast, and he added a few words for the team:
“In all honesty, I do not think we could have achieved any of this without the help of yourself and Harriet in making the process understandable to the uninitiated!”
John, publisher, Young Carers Illustrations Project
Because the format and the files were already settled, the reprint asked nothing of anyone. John’s email listed the exact spec from his previous order, we sent prices two days later, he approved them before the day was out and the book went straight into production. A fortnight on he was back for more copies of Bunnyland and a fresh batch of the space edition of About Me. Mike’s verdict: these books were going like hot cakes.
Takeaways for charity and community picture books
If you run a charity, a school project or a support service and have a story that needs telling, the route is shorter than it looks. Fix a format you can repeat, ask us to check the files before proofing, and plan companion pieces in the same family.
Then keep your print ready PDF and your spec somewhere you can find them in seconds. Good news rarely gives much warning, and John had around five weeks between hearing from the BBC and the broadcast. With everything filed, his reprint took a single email.
Price a square booklet like this one with our quote tool for stapled square books, or browse more picture books we print for young readers and the groups that support them.
PaperbacksA5, 44 pages, perfect bound£246for 100
