Back to School Announcement

I hope your school year has gotten off to a great start!

As we put the beach gear away and turn our attention back to academics, I have made an exciting business decision.

Effective immediately, I will be able to offer my customers Usborne Books. While the beautiful art and story of Barefoot Books will remain the primary focus of my business, Usborne will supplement my offerings with non-fiction and reference books.

For many years, Usborne Books have had their own place in our home library; filling my boys' needs for science books, foreign language picture dictionaries, activity books, and atlases. I have also had customers ask for math, flashcards, textured board books, more princesses, and crafts. Therefore it seems quite natural to be able to offer these items myself. I am proud to now be providing a broader range of materials to help you meet your children's educational needs. And while I am a lover of literature and the printed word, I feel that the Internet Link aspect of many of the Usborne books adds an important dimension to the learning experience of a young researcher. The two companies really complement each other very well.

My e-commerce site for Usborne is as follows:

www.ubah.com/X2507

I hope you will spend some time browsing the online catalog and PLEASE share with your friends.

To place an order, please join into my web launch eShow by clicking on www.ubah.com/HOS124320. My Business Launch eShow will run through midnight on December 5th - perfect for your holiday needs. (this eShow will help me track my sales and gauge the success of an Usborne side to things)

Tips to Maximize your dollar:

With the holidays right around the corner, you may also consider signing on as a consultant. The sign up offer for September is wonderful: for $35 and free shipping, you get $99 worth of books, a 6 month e-commerce site, and an entry into the lottery for a trip to Rome! It doesn't need to be a "business". You can purchase for your holiday gift giving needs, share the discount with family, and get a discount/commission as well!

Keep in mind that Barefoot offers an affiliate program too... it's FREE and no starter pack purchase is required. You can immediately start buying the books you want for a discount and put a free banner ad on any website to earn commission on web sales!

Alternatively, you can also just earn free books, from either company, by hosting an event. Feel free to call or email me with any questions.

More on Barefoot in an upcoming newsletter! In the meantime, please consider Usborne for your non-fiction needs!

Thank you again for your continued support,
Leonore

Introducing Barefoot Book's Young Fiction! Little Leap Forward

from Barefoot Books:

“Wouldn’t you rather be free, just for a day,
than spend a lifetime in a cage?”

It’s the summer of 1966 and Mao Zedong’s communist regime is about to move to a new level. Little Leap Forward lives in Beijing, with his mother, brother, and four older sisters. When he is not running errands or attending school, he loves to play the flute and to fly kites. One day, Little Leap Forward and his best friend capture a small yellow bird. Little Leap Forward wants her to accompany him on his flute – but behind the bars of her bamboo cage, she is not happy. What will he do – persist with his experiment or set her free?

In a year when China is banning the sale of wild songbirds, ending a 2,000 year history of selling and trading caged thrushes, this story of a young boy learning about freedom of spirit is all the more timely. Little Leap Forward’s touching story is based on author Guo Yue’s boyhood experiences of the Cultural Revolution in China. Sensitive, authoritative and deceptively simple, it offers young readers many intimate and powerful insights into one child’s life and dreams as the Cultural Revolution tightens its grip. As China modernizes and prepares to host the 2008 Olympic Games, interest in this superpower and in the rapidly changing lives of its people is escalating. The games in Beijing this August will bring half a million international and 2.5 million domestic spectators to a newly sanitized city.

THE STORY:

• Video-based e-campaign; national media campaign; author tour timed to coincide with the Beijing Summer Olympics 2008.
• Launch title for Barefoot Books’ new Young Fiction list, perfect for young readers ages 9 -12.
• Looks at close friendship and at the conflict between political change and personal freedom.
• Afterword offers simple historical notes on the Cultural Revolution and talks about what it meant for the author, his family and the Chinese people.
• Gorgeous full color illustrations throughout.

THE CREATORS:

GUO YUE is well known in the music world for the soaring beauty of his bamboo flute playing and compositions. He has performed and recorded worldwide, creating sounds which, in the words of one film director, ‘haunt the soul’. Yue and his wife, Clare Farrow, are also the authors of an adult memoir, Music, Food and Love.

CLARE FARROW is a writer and journalist specializing in modern contemporary art. She and Yue have two young children and live in Richmond, London.

HELEN CANN enjoys using patterns in her artwork and she has a large collection of reference material from around the world, taken from textiles, ceramics, furniture, jewelry— even body paint.

Little Leap Forward is scheduled to release in mid-July!
ShopBarefootBooks.com

Literature: Choose Children's Books Carefully

How do we choose the best books for our kids? Avoid commercialism and poor quality. Seek out meaningful content. This quest should be of the highest priority to anyone purchasing books for the children in their life. In the paragraphs below, I will try to provide more insight and guidance into the process.

I got involved in the publishing industry about a year ago because I believe so deeply that children need more quality literature and I wanted my own children to have the best. I won't say that all your books should come from my company; there are certainly other great books out there too. But there are some important things to keep in mind as you hit the book stores and internet. Fact is, there is a lot of junk produced to keep the big retailers operating. Sift through your choices wisely.

I think a brief introduction to the history of children's publishing is important in understanding the driving forces behind the bulk of products for children in our modern day. (my thanks to Richele Baburina for some of this info in this paragraph) It wasn't until the mid 1800's when books written for children moved beyond primers and textbooks, and authors started creating literature for children, but at that day and age, there was no mass-marketing. Libraries and public schools were the main market for children's books and leading, value-oriented librarians served as the gate-keepers to ensure the quality of publication. The non-institutional market for children's books opened up in 1942 with the introduction of Little Golden Books and the Baby Boom fueled that movement. Fast-forward to the 1980's, when we saw two major developments in the industry: big publishing houses and large chain retailers. The new gate-keepers in children's publishing became the central buyers for those stores and decisions became profit-driven; giving rank to blockbuster titles, star authors, and media tie-ins. Publishers, in many cases, actually purchase advantageous book placement and display from the stores. In this model, we are left wondering where the content figures in. Our children are taught to be consumers at an early age. No longer do our families treasure heirloom quality literature; rather, we purchase flimsy and poorly written books based on TV cartoons because they match the collection of happy meal toys. Do I even need to mention the video games and the disproportionate level of emphasis that has been placed upon them in our society?

About the time I came to that extreme but true realization, I also found Barefoot Books, an independent publisher founded 15 yrs ago by two women just like me. Their incredible vision and determination has led to an unusual and successful business model that includes the best interest of our children's development at the core of the company. The company's focus is on an effort to stir the creative power of children with imaginative art and meaningful story, create a sense of global community by presenting stories from around the world, and maintain the highest level of product quality.

So how do you build the best home or school library for your children? Seek out the books that you remember from your childhood, the folktales that your Grandmother told you, and new books that strike on important values that you'd like to promote within your family. Avoid products that just bring us back to the television set or otherwise reinforce consumer madness. Give your children books that they will be proud to own, rather than disposable booklets compiled by staff writers in a marketing department. Remember that children don't learn best via flashcards and that the best road to literacy and love of literature is simply by reading to your child. Engage their senses with sing-a-longs and stunning artwork. As the custodians of our future, they truly deserve no less. Happy Reading!