Growing Up Barefoot
When we started Barefoot Books in 1993, we were abandoning the security of the corporate world to risk doing something we believed in. With young families to care for, we wanted to work in a way that would enable us to be close to our children, so for several years, our homes were also our offices. We also wanted to make a difference—not only with the books we created but also with the way we did business.
When you start out, no one has heard of you, and you wonder if anyone is going to listen to what you have to say. No one was publishing books quite like ours—would anyone buy them? We believed they would; we just had to find our way to parents and educators who shared our values. This is what we care about: first, we're convinced that it's never too early to introduce children to other cultures. We believe too that children can appreciate high-quality art, and enjoy the music as well as the meaning of language from a very early age. They deserve the very best, and they are dependent on their elders to help them make connections between themselves and others, between nature and culture, between learning and living. They need their parents' and teachers' interest, involvement and time.
To promote these values, we focus on themes that can open into group or adult-child discussions, performance, art sessions, dance routines and a lot more. Our products are intended to act as springboards for children?s hearts and minds, helping them to express themselves with confidence and integrity, and to explore the world in new ways. These, it seems to us, are essential skills in today's fragile and fast-changing world. We need creative people in business, in the arts, in medicine and science, and in government. But creativity doesn't just happen: the seeds may be in all of us, but the way we raise our children, and the emphasis we place on their imaginative development, is what helps those seeds to grow.
So we create books, CDs and other gifts that offer high educational value and are lots of fun. They're designed to last, but above all, they are meant to be shared and enjoyed. We work with business partners from all walks of life: with booksellers and librarians, with home-sellers and gift retailers, with educators and campaigners, with everyone who shares our vision. We set out to honor different traditions, and to celebrate the complex web of interdependence in the life-systems that support us. Thank you for supporting our efforts and let's enjoy the journey!
Nancy Traversy and Tessa Strickland
