I wrote a full short story with Midjourney doing the illustrations — my kids love it

My daughter asked me to write her a story about a girl who befriends a cloud. I said yes without thinking, then panicked — I'm not a writer, and I'm definitely not an illustrator. Here's how I made a proper illustrated storybook in one weekend. **The writing (with Claude):** I told Claude the concept and asked it to help me write a 10-page children's story with simple sentences suitable for a 5-year-old. We went back and forth — I'd say "make this part funnier" or "the ending feels too easy, can we add a small challenge?" — until the story felt right. I wrote the final version myself using the AI draft as scaffolding. **The illustrations (with Midjourney):** For each scene, I wrote a prompt based on what was happening in that part of the story. Style: "watercolour children's book illustration, soft colours, whimsical." I learned quickly to keep the character description identical across prompts ("a girl with curly red hair and a yellow raincoat") so the character looked consistent. **The final product:** I used Canva to combine the text and images, printed it at a local print shop, and had it spiral-bound. Total cost: about $12. My daughter carries it to school to show her friends. She told her teacher "my dad made me a real book." That's a feeling no amount of money can buy.

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