Show HN: Lyra Kids – A personalized AI picture book generator for parents

Hi HN,

I’m a developer and a father of two daughters (ages 4 and 6). Like many parents, I found that standard bedtime stories didn't always capture their unique imagination. So, I built Lyra Kids (https://lyra.kids) to turn our nightly ritual into something more magical.

What it does: It allows parents to input a simple hero name and a plot idea. The system then generates a structured story blueprint and brings it to life with high-quality, whimsical illustrations.

Why I built it: I wanted a safe, ad-free environment where my kids could see themselves as the heroes of their own adventures. I've focused on creating a "Draft the Plan" feature that helps when you're feeling stuck but still want to be part of the creative process.

The Tech:

Frontend: Responsive web design for both mobile (vertical) and PC (side-by-side reading mode).

AI: Powered by Google Gemini's image and language models for story and illustration generation.

I'm currently optimizing the layout for PC users to provide a more immersive, "book-like" experience.

I’d love to get your feedback on the UX and the storytelling logic. I'm also happy to answer any questions about the technical challenges of maintaining character consistency across generated illustrations.

Thanks for checking it out!

I’m sure I’ll get flak for this but I’m sorry we can argue about AI all day and there’s a lot of stuff that’s being built and is genuinely depressing but this takes the cake. There’s few memories I cherish more of childhood than being read The Hobbit at the age of your children. The best part was my dad would slip in nonsense sentences when it seemed like I was drifting off. “And then Roxolotl hops out and grabs the ring!” We’d then play off of each other creating a brief fork in the story. I’d strongly encourage you to just talk to your children. You’d be amazed how good they are at coming up with stories on their own and it’s an incredible way to bond.

Why I built it: I wanted a safe, ad-free environment where my kids could see themselves as the heroes of their own adventures.

This is what play is for. I don't think trying to maximize engagement by training them to see themselves at the center of events is a recipe for healthy mental development. If you're not finding that standard bedtime stories are sufficiently engaging...try different ones? It's not like there's a shortage of children's books, maybe your kids are in the mood for more advanced reading material.

one of the key benefits of reading non-personalized stories is developing an ability to appreciate and mentally model things that are happening to other people, albeit fictional ones. The reader not being in control of the story (and indeed feeling powerless to change the outcome) means they're forced to engage with the possibility of things not turning out as desired.

If you want to help them capture their unique imagination, buy them a tape recorder. Writing and drawing their own books at that age is a tall order because it's such a time-consuming process, but chattering isn't a problem, and they'll probably figure out how to iterate on things by themselves.

This makes me think about "main character energy."

Now that i'm an uncle, I see firsthand how much the little ones love to see themselves. They always want to play with my phone to make silly videos, of mostly themselves. it is creative though, and not always all about them. (it's mostly about them). they do stop-motion with little figurines and legos, now i love those!

Anyway, sorry you're just the messenger of all this, but i can't help but think we probably shouldn't reinforce an entire reality that is literally always them being the main character. Given it happens naturally in this digital age, I'd probably go out of my way to balance it vs drive it home 100x

I'd get it if we lacked unique books, but... a local library likely has more than you could ever read. And even if you don't have one, there are online libraries to use. The generated stories are not close to the same quality. Why go for a "book-like" experience rather than actual books?

I can't articulate why but AI generated images like this are so off putting. I am actively trying to avoid my toddler from seeing stuff like this.

I'm really starting to hope the costs are unsustainable and semiconductors hit a brick wall. But I'm not optimistic.

Most educated people I know actively want to reduce technology in their kids' childhood, especially while they are young. I can't help but think this is like intentionally showing your kids the low quality videos made for kids on YouTube. It's depressing

So you wanted your kids to see more enticing pictures? Kids that age should be using their imagination, and besides, bed time is not screen time.

As a geek and a father, may I recommend that you spend less time building tech tools for your young kids and more time in the real world with them? Four and six seem young now, but they’ll be teenagers next week and not up for reading with you anymore.

Is it really inspired by love if you put 5 seconds into it?

I've done the AI books for my kids but putting effort into making them personal and interesting has been the main point.

I think this is the most an HN post has ever bummed me out, congratulations I guess.

just read to your kids, damn

This is an interesting, well-done project. I thought the concept was wholesome and encouraging for parents to spend time with and read to children.

The stories themselves really affirm the value of talented (human) children's authors. It takes deceptively significant amount of practice and deliberate crafting for children's authors and illustrators to make successful books.

The AI generated images of kids in the "Community Creations" section is a little bit weird... might be better to keep the kids more cartoony like the main image (Pixar-style - though obviously be careful of Copyright there).

Haven't played much with the other generation tools, but it's genuinely a cool idea and one I've thought of creating myself as a dad to a 2.5 year old.

Honest feedback? Don’t have it replace storytelling, don’t replace imagination, don’t have it add structure, don’t remove the parts that let them grow and explore their own universe. Maybe, at best, let it just create a visual augmentation to their own special worlds, but still, just get them crayons and let them dirty the walls.

As the father of a 2- and 4-year-old, this project is repulsive.

> Like many parents, I found that standard bedtime stories didn't always capture their unique imagination. So, I built Lyra Kids (https://lyra.kids) to turn our nightly ritual into something more magical.

We have the standard template product pitch here (“Unlike our competitors, our product does XYZ”) but turned against _the entirety of children’s literature_.

You really think that many parents find “standard bedtime stories” insufficient?

Look, we have a couple of those books that use your kid’s name and a custom illustration that resembles them. They’re about as sophisticated as a Hallmark card and equally unrewarding. The kids get a kick out of it, but it’s a rare amusement and not actual interest. You don’t talk about the plot or the characters of a Mad Lib.

I’ll set aside my moral outrage and assume that you wanted to build this project no matter what and backed into the product positioning later, because the alternative is too depressing to consider.

It kind of freaks me out that there are AI generated photos of people's kids (with what seems like their real names) being featured on the home page.

Maybe this is all fine but it would definitely make me less likely to use this. And I can think of many ways it could go wrong...

It's not just about the words. It's the physical book, read and emoted by you, to them, while you are holding them, feeling their warmth, hearing their breath soften as they grow sleepy and fall asleep. It's a thing that you can read again and again, and even something they may remember or talk about with friends in the future. Consider whether it's a good idea to replace Goodnight Moon or Bear Snores On (particularly good to sing or chant) with something like this. I can see this being a viable option for people who can't afford physical children's books, sort of like how I see screen controls as a viable option for people who can't afford tactile, mechanical controls. The perception is wrong about this stuff. It's not better, it's not putting your energy where it is best spent, and frankly I don't trust a Young Lady's Illustrative Primer to raise my kids even for a second.

Why not just scroll tiktok with them, that will be more engaging

I hate to pile on the criticism here but this gives me uneasy futuristic vibes.

My dad recently passed away but some of the sweetest things we remember as kids was how he would always tell us "make up stories." They were silly little stories that were probably lame, but we could feel his love for us as he took the time to spin up some silly little story. I would never trade that for the best LLM creativity.

Spend time writing one story with your kids, you end up with something special. Spend that time writing a tool to generate infinite stories, you've got shovelware.

Honest feedback time. I've seen at least a half a dozen of these AI Bedtime story teller programs on HN in the past year. (probably since the days when DALL-3 was launched).

This one suffers from the same image and curation related issues as all the other ones. (though I will profess I smirked at the unintentionally amusing inadvertent generation of a three legged white rabbit on page 2)

https://lyra.kids/stories/alices-wild-wonderland-adventure

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I feel so incredibly sad for your daughters. Read books to them.

I want to scream.

> standard bedtime stories didn't always capture their unique imagination

If you really mean this, I invite you to reflect on whether the LLM generated stories will be any better. Good art including stories, even those for children, have the power to move people, and are so much more than what AI slop can offer.

Would you like to read some LLM generated novels before bedtime? If not, why not extend the same grace to your daughters?

Or you could just read your daughters bed time stories yourself, instead of burning the Planet Earth and Humanity in the process. You love making Scam Altman rich don't you? Keep worshiping those "AI AGENTS.MD".

I wasn't gonna say anything that other commenters didn't say, but then it occurred to me, how paradoxical this actually is: I'm less disgusted by the prospect that OP might be just random shill trying to sell yet another random slop generator solely in attempt to make some profit, than that he might be... well, sincere.

This is so dystopian. I've been buying paper books for years so that my future kids will have something to hold onto.

I'm really hoping I will have the patience to discuss with them and pay attention to their imagination and not numb them down with this crap. Sorry for being harsh. This just made me sad and angry.

How did you get it to not generate dull, soulless, pointless stories?

Just parent...

I tried it out but it got stuck at generating plan. Love the idea though.

Decades to centuries of phenomenal, thoughtful, unique, creative kids stories that can be curated to introduce whole worlds of ideas. And you want to replace it with cookie-cutter AI slop and give them the world's worst case of Main Character Syndrome, how utterly depressing.

This is so bleak. You’re introducing 4-year-olds to machine-generated garbage and teaching them it’s normal before they even have a fighting chance to develop literacy and taste.