56 Books

The Brief 56 books. One life. Boundless journeys.

56books.life was commissioned by Kitchen — in collaboration with Macmillan Cancer Support, as a tribute to Suki Thompson, a prominent figure in the charity world who lost her battle with cancer. The concept was as simple as it was moving: 56 books, one for each year of Suki's life — each containing a unique code, passed from reader to reader around the world, their journeys tracked on an interactive map.

Our role was to bring the tracking mechanic to life: generate 56 unique codes, embed them in QR codes printed inside each book cover, and build the site that would log and display each book's travels.

The Mechanic Scan, tag, pass it on

Each of the 56 copies was assigned a number and a unique 6-character code. When a recipient received a book, they would scan the QR code on the inside cover, land on the site, and accept a geolocation prompt. Their location was silently logged, the page refreshed to the homepage, and their pin appeared on the map — no form filling, no friction, no interruption to the experience.

Filtering the map by book number reveals that individual copy's journey: pins dropping in date order with a staggered animation that gives a quiet sense of progression — London to Sydney to Toronto — without needing connecting lines to tell the story.

The idea was that once read, each book would be passed on to a friend or colleague, who would tag its new location and do the same. 56 books, theoretically boundless journeys.

The Build React, maps, and a quiet geolocation prompt

Built in React with Google Maps integration and a SQL database logging each location event, the site was Lavine's first AI-assisted development project — predating the era of coding agents, using Copilot as an early inline assistant at a time when the tooling was still finding its feet.

The design, copy, and creative direction came entirely from Kitchen. The marbled endpaper aesthetic, the "Every Day Is A Gift" framing, the book cover imagery — all Kitchen. Our contribution was purely technical: making the concept work reliably, elegantly, and without fuss.

The Impact £186,984 raised and counting

The JustGiving page associated with the project has so far raised £186,984 towards a £250,000 target for Macmillan Cancer Support. The site remains live.