Short version: Wonderbly is the better shop if you want choice, speed or a book for an older child. Gli Books is the better fit if you want a book drawn from your own child's photo and set in a real African place. Below is the longer version, with the reasons. We make Gli Books, so we are not neutral. Every fact about Wonderbly here comes from its own website as it read on 11 October 2026. The pages are linked at the end. Side by side How your child gets in. Gli Books: Drawn from one photo. Wonderbly: Chosen from character designs, then hair and skin tone options. Titles. Gli Books: One: Aseye and the Bridge in the Sky. Wonderbly: Many, for most ages and occasions. Setting. Gli Books: Kakum National Park, Ghana. Wonderbly: Varies by book. Ages. Gli Books: 0–6. Wonderbly: Newborn to teens, by book. Price (UK). Gli Books: £24.99 + £4.00 UK delivery. Wonderbly: From £21.99. Preview. Gli Books: Two finished pages, before you pay. Wonderbly: The whole story, before you buy. Timing. Gli Books: Arrives in 1–2 weeks from your order, printing included. Wonderbly: Dispatched in 2–4 working days; standard UK delivery estimated 4 days out on the day we checked. Delivers to. Gli Books: Ghana, the UK, the US and Canada. Wonderbly: Many countries, chosen at checkout. Where Wonderbly is better Choice. Wonderbly has books for birthdays, Christmas, new babies, grandparents and much more. We have one story. Older children. Its range runs to teenagers. Ours is written for 0–6. Speed. On the day we checked, its delivery page estimated standard UK delivery four days later. Ours takes 1–2 weeks from order to arrival. Seeing everything first. You can preview the whole Wonderbly story. We show two finished spreads. Where it delivers. Wonderbly's delivery list is long, and includes Nigeria. We deliver to four countries. Where Gli Books is different The main difference is how your child gets into the pictures. A Wonderbly character is one of a set of designs, adjusted for hair and skin tone. Ours is drawn from a photo of your child, so their hairstyle, the shape of their face and the way their hair sits are read from the picture rather than picked from a list. Wonderbly's page promises a selection of hair options but does not name them, so if your child has locs, puffs, braids or a low cut, look in the builder for that style before you buy. The second difference is the setting. Our story happens at a real place, the canopy walkway above the rainforest at Kakum in Ghana, and the grown-up beside your child is a reading buddy you name: an auntie, a grandma, a godfather, a big brother. For a family with roots in Ghana it is a piece of home. For anyone else it is somewhere real and specific, not a generic forest. Smaller things: your photo is deleted once the book goes to print, within 7 days of upload at the latest. You can cancel for a full refund until we approve your order and start making it, and a book that arrives damaged is replaced free. Which to choose Choose Wonderbly for a particular occasion, a child over six, or a book that has to arrive this week. Choose Wonderbly if the builder already has a character who looks like your child. Choose Gli Books if no builder gets your child right, especially their hair, or you want the story set in Ghana. Does Wonderbly have Black characters? You choose from character designs and then pick hair and skin tone from a selection of options. The product page we read does not list the options, so look in the builder for a character that matches your child. Is Gli Books cheaper than Wonderbly? Not really. Wonderbly's UK shop lists books from £21.99 plus delivery, which it shows at checkout, and ours is £24.99 + £4.00 UK delivery. The difference is in how the child is drawn, not the price. What is a good Wonderbly alternative for an African child? If you want the child drawn from a photo and the story set in Africa, Gli Books. If you want a builder with more options, Hooray Heroes, which also offers glasses and freckles. We compare all of them in our guide to personalised books for Black and African children.