Book Dedications: What to Write, Examples and Mistakes

A tried-and-true dedication has five parts: a greeting, the occasion, a personal reason, a wish, and your signature with the date. The greeting comes first and is followed by a comma ("Dear Lily,"). The occasion anchors the message in time — "for your sixth birthday", "for finishing your first year of school". The personal reason is the heart of it: one sentence about why you chose this particular book for this particular person. The wish looks to the future, and the signature and date turn the message into a record — in twenty years' time, that is what will matter most.

What doesn't belong is anything that would suit any other book and any other person. "Hope you enjoy the book" isn't a dedication, it's just an extra signature. Skip the apologies, too ("hope I picked something you like"), and the long speeches — a dedication isn't an address, it's a few sentences that will be read aloud.

Dedications have a long history in books: the author's dedication, offering a work to a patron or a loved one, was printed on its own page even in early printed books. A handwritten dedication from the giver is the reader's version of the same tradition — it gives the book a second author.

Treat the examples below as a framework — swap in the name, the occasion and one specific detail, and the dedication becomes yours. Read the dedication aloud to children every time you open the book: it makes a lovely first page for a reading-together ritual, the same spirit as National Simultaneous Storytime, when one Australian picture book is read aloud at the same time in schools and libraries across the country.

With adults, a dedication can carry more humour and less explanation — the reader knows the context. One specific in-joke and a short wish work well.

The usual place is the endpaper (the first leaf just inside the cover) or the half-title page — the page with only the book's title. Don't write over printed text or on the inside of the cover; a dedication needs its own quiet space. In books for little ones, use the top of the page — the bottom corners are the first thing small hands get hold of.

The most reliable choice is an ordinary ballpoint pen: it doesn't smudge or bleed through to the other side of the page. Gel and fountain pens look more special, but they dry slowly on smooth coated paper — test them on the margin of the last page and let the dedication dry for a few minutes before you close the book. Felt-tips and markers don't belong in books.

If you'd rather not write in the book, perhaps because it's a collector's piece, tuck the dedication in on a separate card or stick an ex libris bookplate on the endpaper and write your message on that. And if you're still choosing the book, have a look at our guide on how to choose a children's book by age.

A handwritten dedication has a printed counterpart: in personalised books, you enter the dedication in advance and it is printed on the opening page as part of the book. That's handy when you're sending the gift from far away, when the message is longer than an endpaper can hold, or when you want the book to feel personal from the very first page.

With Hero of the Book, you write the dedication right in the guide while you put the story together, and it is printed on the opening page — the name and the dedication sit naturally in the text, because the story is written directly in your language (before you pay, you'll see a suggested title, a preview of the story and the dedication; the finished illustrations come after you order). Printed and handwritten dedications aren't either-or — you can still add a few words by hand on the endpaper of the printed book.

For the littlest ones, where a book has to compete with toys, try our guide to gifts for a one-year-old — and for reading the dedicated copy at bedtime, see our bedtime story ritual.