Create Books with Canva

Using the popular design app, your kids can create their own books.

Kids love stories. Why not enhance storytime by having them create their own books?

The app Canva makes designing books on a computer, iPad, or phone very accessible. While there is a paid option for more template choices and content options, the free version should be enough to design a book from start to finish in less than an hour.

After you sign in, click on Templates and search for “Book Covers.”

I selected “The Tale of Monster Falls” as the template for the eBook that I made below.

After you select “Use this template,” you can change the font (type and size) and add other elements as well as pages.

I clicked the upload feature on the left to add kid art that was drawn in Procreate. Then the story text was added in Canva. After the eBook was finished, I exported it as a gif so it could be viewed here.

I prefer to export the eBook as a pdf, so it can be sent to friends and family. The pdf eBook can be opened in iBooks or Kindle and viewed just like other digital books.

To get started, your kids don’t have to make original art. Canva has stock photos and icons you can use if you wanted to try this without having to create original illustrations. You can also use photos from your camera roll to create a personalized photo book.

Here is an example of a few pages from a book I made about tennis.