The Young Carpenter Books ยท the publishing division of
Practical Business AI

Stories that build something in a child

Books that teach children something they can use.

Picture books and chapter stories for ages 4 to 12 where the characters learn a real skill, make a real choice, and grow a little. Every story is rooted in Christian values and written to be read aloud at bedtime. We also publish family memoirs, because the best lessons often come from the people who lived them.

See our books Make your own book tonight

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

Cover of My Home was the Bayou by Pat Brown: a woman and a small boy fishing on a Louisiana bayou at sunset Cover of The Moonstone Crew, Book One, The Search for the Moonstone Crystal by Neill Roshto: a fox, moose, otter, turtle, squirrel and wolf stand before a blue dragon under the moon

On our shelf

Our books

Two titles are on the way to print. Leave your email on a book and we will tell you the day it is available.

The Moonstone Crew, Book One cover
Illustrated children's bookComing soon in print and ebook

The Moonstone Crew, Book One: The Search for the Moonstone Crystal

by Neill Roshto

Ages 5 to 10Format 32-page illustrated hardcover and paperback, ebookExtra narrated audiobook with music and sound

Captain the fox and his crew set out to find the Moonstone Crystal and learn that courage, friendship and kindness are the greatest treasures of all. A father wrote this story for his two boys, and we finished it with him: every scene illustrated, every character the same from page to page, and a full narrated audiobook so the whole family can listen together.

Tell me when it is out
My Home was the Bayou cover
Family memoirPrint edition in preparation

My Home was the Bayou

Lifetime of stories of a Louisiana boyhood: Pat Brown's autobiography. By Ernest Gilbert "Pat" Brown, edited by Leigh Ann and Daryl Taylor

Length 310 pages, illustratedExtra narrated audiobook, 9 hours 34 minutes, with Pat's own voice opening chapters

Pat Brown told his life onto cassette tapes: the 1927 levee, a hurricane, a panther in the night, a mule named Two Bits, and a boyhood on the water. His family rescued the tapes, and we turned them into a book worth handing down. It is the kind of story a grandparent reads to a grandchild and then says, "that really happened."

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Story Gift

Want to develop your own children's book now? Deliver it to your child or grandchild before bedtime tonight!

Story Gift writes and illustrates a bedtime story about your own child: their name, their pets, their house, their grandparents. You answer a few questions, pick the lesson you want the story to carry, and the finished illustrated book is ready to read on a phone or tablet the same evening.

  • Your child is the hero, drawn from the photos you choose
  • Every story teaches a virtue: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
  • Short enough to finish in ten minutes, with a read-aloud voice if you want one
  • Keep adding episodes; the characters stay the same from book to book
Start tonight's story

For writers and families

Finish the book you started

Many families have a story half-written: a draft for the kids, a grandparent's tapes, a manuscript that stalled at the pictures. We take it the rest of the way.

What we do

  1. Read your draft and tell you honestly what is finished and what is not.
  2. Illustrate every page so the characters look the same from the first page to the last.
  3. Typeset the book for print, with cover, title page and dedication.
  4. Record a narrated audiobook, with music and sound where the story earns it.
  5. Prepare the print, ebook and audio files and publish under your name.

Our first finished title, The Moonstone Crew, began as a father's draft for his sons.

What it costs

Every book is different, so we quote each one after reading it. Tell us about your book and we will come back with a plan and a price, with no obligation.

Tell us about your book

Stay in touch

Tell me when a book is out

One email per book release. Nothing else, and you can reply "stop" at any time.

Questions, orders for schools and churches, or press

Write to us through the Practical Business AI contact page and choose "Book Publishing". A real person answers.

Contact us