Your Pet and Galileo Look Up

Yes, kept simple. Galileo did not invent the telescope: he heard about a Dutch spyglass in 1609, built his own and improved it by grinding better lenses. What he sees in the story is what he really saw in 1609 and 1610 — mountains and craters on the Moon, the stars of the Milky Way, four moons going round Jupiter, and Venus changing shape — and the book credits Copernicus for the idea that the Earth goes round the Sun. A short note for grown-ups at the back gives the dates. Your pet, and the sock, are the parts we made up.

The note for grown-ups at the back says it plainly: never look at the Sun through binoculars or a telescope. In the story Galileo only ever looks at the night sky, and no picture shows the spyglass pointed at the Sun.

Your pet is Galileo’s companion and the hero of every picture: it spots the craters on the Moon (they look like the ring a drop makes in soup), keeps count of the tiny lights beside Jupiter, notices that Venus changes shape the way the Moon does, and finds the missing sock. Galileo draws the conclusions, as he did in real life. Any pet that can get about a house and up the stairs to a roof on its own can do every bit of it — a rabbit, a bird, a guinea pig, a lizard. A fish cannot: every page happens out of water. A pony or a donkey will be drawn gamely climbing the stairs to the roof, which some families will love and some will find odd.

Bold and bright: flat, saturated colour, thick outlines and simple rounded shapes against a deep navy night sky, with one clear idea on each page so a small child can find the Moon, count the moons and spot the sock. It is the one look this book comes in, and Galileo is drawn the same way on every page.

A 40-page 8.5-inch square hardcover, printed just for you. Your pet is the star of every picture, and their name is on the cover. A page at the front has a note in your own words. A real person checks the book before it prints. Shipping in the U.S. is free. If it arrives damaged, we send a new one for free.

Yes, one page. After the cover, you can see one page from inside the book with your pet in it, free. We paint the rest after you order. A real person checks every picture against your photo before it prints.

One pet, facing the camera, in good light. Daylight near a window is best. The face, colors and markings should be sharp. Skip heavy shadows, busy backgrounds and photos with two pets. A phone photo is fine.

Yes. We make the pictures with AI from the photo you send. They are not painted by hand. A real person on our team checks every book before it prints.

We keep it, with what you typed and the art we made. That way we can reprint your book if something goes wrong, and make your next book without a new photo. To have it deleted, email support@illustratedyou.com, or ask us to close your account. No public gallery. No ads without asking you first. We don’t train AI on your photos, and we set up the AI services we use so they don’t train their general AI models on them either.