Closed for good in April 2024 — what happened, and where to go now
Story Genie vs. Put Me In The Story
The licensed-character pioneer — Sesame Street, Pete the Cat, Peanuts and Disney books personalized with your child's name. Permanently closed in April 2024.Here’s an honest, side-by-side look at how we’re different, including where Put Me In The Story is the better pick.
If you're searching for Put Me In The Story in 2026, you deserve a straight answer before anything else: the store is gone. Sourcebooks permanently shut it down on April 14, 2024, with a farewell notice thanking customers and pointing them to regular retailers. The domain now redirects to the publisher. Any gift guide still listing it as a place to buy is out of date.
It earned the nostalgia. Put Me In The Story put a child's name inside real licensed favorites, Sesame Street, Pete the Cat, Peanuts, Star Wars, and at its 2016 peak sold through more than 200 Barnes & Noble stores. For a lot of families it was the first personalized book they ever gave.
This page covers what it offered, why nothing quite replaced it one-for-one, and where its two ingredients went: licensed characters now live at BubblyDoo, and the child-as-star idea grew into photo-illustrated books like ours, where the hero doesn't just share a name with your kid, they share a face.
Side by side
What you actually get, row by row.
Can you order today?
Story Genie
Yes
Put Me In The Story
No — the store shut down permanently on April 14, 2024; the domain now redirects to Sourcebooks
Format (historical)
Story Genie
Hardcover (standard)
Put Me In The Story
Hardcover, paperback, and board-book editions of licensed titles
Personalization (historical)
Story Genie
Hero illustrated from your child's photo
Put Me In The Story
Name woven into the text; photo printed once on the title page
Licensed characters
Story Genie
No — original stories starring your child
Put Me In The Story
Yes — Sesame Street, Pete the Cat, Peanuts, Star Wars, Disney (their signature strength)
Price (historical)
Story Genie
$49.99 all-in (US shipping included)
Put Me In The Story
$24.99–$34.99 + shipping ($6.99+ under a $65 free-shipping threshold)
How we compared
Every claim on this page comes from Put Me In The Story’s own website, help pages, and published policies, or from independent review platforms like Trustpilot. We check prices on their live product pages, shipping numbers on their shipping pages, and policies in their own terms. Where something isn’t published, we say “not disclosed” instead of guessing.
We sell one of the two products being compared, so we hold ourselves to a simple rule: every page names where the other brand genuinely wins, and if a claim can’t be traced to a source, it comes off the page.
Concretely, that means prices come from live product pages rather than old screenshots, shipping numbers from the brand’s own shipping and delivery pages, policies from their published terms, and review figures from independent platforms rather than on-site widgets (which several brands curate). When a brand’s own pages contradict each other, and a few do, we quote the range and say so. When a “sale” price never actually ends, we treat the sale price as the real price and tell you that too.
These pages are also on a clock: an automated freshness check flags any comparison whose facts are more than 90 days old, which forces a full re-verification against the competitor’s live site at least once a quarter. The date below is when that last happened for this page.
Facts on this page last verified on July 4, 2026. Competitor prices and promotions move often, so always confirm on their site before you buy.
The difference you can hold
Your child’s book, not a name swap
Most personalized books drop a name into pages that never change. Story Genie writes and illustrates the story around your child.
Story GenieMade from your photo
Your child appears in the art on every page. You pick the style, the setting, and the life lesson.
A Story About
[CHILD’S NAME]
same pages, every child
The premade template
Fixed illustrations and a fixed plot. Your child’s name goes into pages that stay the same.
Inside the book
Full-page art with your child in the scene.
A real hardcover
Stitched binding and thick pages, built for nightly reads.
The first look
They find themselves on page one.
Left: real Story Genie product photography. Right: an illustration of the common premade approach, not any specific brand’s book.
Where Put Me In The Story pulls ahead
The honest case for Put Me In The Story.
We won’t pretend they have no advantages. If any of these matter most to you, they’re the right pick.
- Real licensed characters kids already loved — the only major personalized-book player with Sesame Street, Star Wars, Marvel and Peanuts rights
- Actual bestselling published stories rather than made-to-order text
- Strong ratings while it operated (96–99% on flagship titles) and 200+ Barnes & Noble stores at its 2016 peak
Where Story Genie pulls ahead
Why families pick Story Genie over Put Me In The Story.
- You can actually order — their store closed permanently on April 14, 2024
- The child is the illustrated star, not a name swap with a photo pasted on the title page
- Orders are reviewed and revisable during the free preview; their policy printed exactly what you typed, typos included
- $49.99 includes US shipping; they charged $7–10 shipping under a $65 threshold
Common ground
What you get with either.
The honest sorting hat
Which book fits your kid?
Pick Put Me In The Storyif…
- You find a leftover non-personalized edition at a retailer — some of their licensed titles live on in stores, minus the personalization
- You're researching what happened to a gift you loved — their farewell notice and history are worth knowing before you chase a dead checkout
Pick Story Genie if…
- You're trying to order a personalized book today — their store closed permanently on April 14, 2024
- What you loved was your child inside a real book — a photo-illustrated hero goes further than the name swap and title-page photo they offered
- You want the same gift-moment with a live guarantee behind it — preview, revisions, and support from a company that's still shipping
Price at a glance
One book. One price.
Story Genie
$49.99
All-in. Hardcover, free US shipping, unlimited revisions during preview.
Put Me In The Story
Store closed
Shut down April 14, 2024. Non-personalized editions of some titles remain at retailers.
The bottom line
Put Me In The Story earned its place — it put licensed favorites like Sesame Street and Pete the Cat around a child's name, sold through 200+ Barnes & Noble stores at its peak, and made a lot of kids feel famous. It's also gone: the store shut permanently in April 2024, and the domain now redirects to its publisher. If licensed characters were the draw, BubblyDoo carries that torch today. If the draw was your child starring in the story, the idea has outgrown the name swap — a hero illustrated from their actual photo, in a story written for them, is the version of this magic you can still buy. And if you landed here holding a gift card or a half-finished order from the old site, we're sorry — that magic deserves a better ending than a redirect. The good news is the idea it pioneered is in the strongest shape it's ever been; it just wears different names now.
Weighing more than two brands? See how all 12 stack up in our 2026 buying guide.
Common questions
Quick answers.
Did any part of Put Me In The Story survive?
Two pieces did. Sourcebooks folded the brand into a 'Personalized At Retail' program — a small line of in-store personalized items, a shadow of the old catalog. And the underlying licensed titles continue as regular, non-personalized editions at ordinary bookstores. The technology and the website that let you put a child's name into Sesame Street from your couch are gone entirely; that use case now belongs to the brands on our comparison hub.
What's the closest licensed-character replacement today?
BubblyDoo — they hold current licenses for PAW Patrol, Peppa Pig, Barbie, Sonic, and Cocomelon, print in the USA, and deliver in about five business days. The mechanics differ from Put Me In The Story's name-swap: your child joins as a customizable cartoon avatar, and the photo you upload prints as a photo. We compare them fully on our BubblyDoo page.
I have an old Put Me In The Story book. Is it worth anything?
Sentimentally, plenty — personalized print runs of one are irreplaceable by definition, and the store that made them no longer exists. Keep it. There's no meaningful resale market for personalized books, which is rather the point of them.
Can I still buy Put Me In The Story books anywhere?
The personalized versions, no — the store and its personalization engine closed in April 2024. Some of the underlying licensed titles are still sold as regular, non-personalized editions at ordinary retailers, and their publisher runs a small personalized-at-retail program with a handful of in-store items.
Why did Put Me In The Story shut down?
No public reason was given. Their farewell notice said only that 'after careful consideration' the site would permanently close on April 14, 2024, pointing customers to retail stores for non-personalized editions. The personalized-book demand clearly didn't disappear — the market moved to photo-likeness and avatar products instead.
Is Put Me In The Story still in business?
No. The Sourcebooks-owned store announced it was 'permanently shutting down the Put Me In The Story website as of April 14, 2024,' and the domain now redirects to sourcebooks.com. Non-personalized editions of some of its titles are still sold at regular retailers.
Where can I get a personalized book with licensed characters now?
Story Genie doesn't do licensed characters — our books star your child in an original story illustrated from their photo. If Sesame Street or PAW Patrol on the page is the priority, BubblyDoo currently sells licensed personalized titles; we compare them honestly on our BubblyDoo page.
What's the closest thing to what Put Me In The Story offered?
Their magic was seeing your child's name inside a real book. The 2026 version of that idea goes further: Story Genie generates an original story where the hero is illustrated to look like your child from one photo, with a full free preview before you pay.