If there’s one thing we all wish we could give the children in our lives during this unusual time, it’s joy.

With many of their favorite activities on hold and restricted from seeing friends, stir-crazy kids are nearly desperate for fun things to do. And guilt-ridden, exhausted parents are searching for screen-free ways to keep children of all ages safely occupied.

That’s why we’ve created the Barefoot Book Box*, the new monthly subscription for children from birth to 9 years old: a colorful ray of hope for stressed out families.

After this challenging year, all of us at Barefoot Books would like to extend our most heartfelt thank you!

As a small, independent book publisher, we are so grateful for the wonderful support we have received from all over the globe. For nearly 30 years, you have reminded us how important our mission is and have inspired our work daily.

“May your walls know joy, may every room hold laughter,
and every window open to great possibility”

– Mary Anne Radmacher

We would like to extend a warm thank you for supporting our mission to open children’s hearts and minds this year.

Our picture book Jet the Cat (Is Not a Cat) comes out in May, 2021. Here’s a sneak peek into how this very special book was created!

Plus, sign up below to stay informed on Jet the Cat news.

When I was a child, beauty was white or white-proximate.

Positive representation of Black people in the media was so rare that when we came across it, we ran to it like lost souls in a desert run to an oasis. Of course, we had Jet, Essence and Ebony, the triumvirate of Black mass media for decades. But there is something about stories. Whether they are told on a screen or in books, stories convey a society’s sense of itself—what is acceptable and unacceptable, real and impossible, normal and aberrant. What was and is still missing from children’s literature are depictions of children of colorcolour as radically normal.

Mindfulness can boost adults’ physical and emotional well-being—and a growing number of studies proves that children can reap similar benefits.

The documented upsides of mindfulness are pretty amazing.

Barefoot Books has won the Independent Publishers Guild’s Diversity in Publishing Award for 2020!

The Alison Morrison Diversity Award, granted by the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG), is one of the most significant recognitions of success that an independent publisher can achieve.

After a summer of an odd “new normal,” many of our home routines are changing again.

No matter how young your children are, they probably detect a shift, and they may be struggling with their feelings about it. Kids display anxiety in a variety of ways, from demonstrating challenging or clingy behaviors to disruptions in their sleep patterns. Whether your child is showing signs that they feel anxious or acting like it’s business-as-usual, here are five simple and creative ways you can help your kids manage anxiety.

Kids can make their own “bread pets” with these kid-friendly instructions!

Involving kids in the sourdough craze seems like a no-brainer: it’s a super cool science experiment and cooking project all in one. But anyone who’s tried to grow a sourdough starter (and then make edible bread from it) knows that it’s easier said than done.

Fortunately, when writing our picture book, The Bread Pet, our editors made sure they created the perfect sourdough starter instructions for kids.

No matter what your local situation or personal circumstances, one thing is certain: learning looks different now.

There are no easy answers, but maybe the need to do things differently has a silver lining. With fewer scheduled activities, children have more opportunities for long periods of uninterrupted play—and for meaningful, hands-on learning. What if, in these times, there is actually more room for joy in learning?