Barefoot Books, the flagship shop of the children’s publisher, has left Cambridge for bigger quarters in Concord and a new identity. The shop still sells only books from Barefoot’s catalog of more than 400 titles, but it has been re-envisioned as a community center. Among the offerings will be storytelling, art workshops, parenting classes, and yoga for children. Adults can enjoy a cup of coffee at an outdoor café on the premises.
The move is a homecoming of sorts for Nancy Traversy, chief executive of Barefoot Books, the company she co founded in 1993 to publish multicultural children’s books. She lives in Concord, and her four children attend school there. She wants to create an inviting space for families. (The Bedford Farms ice cream stand across the street is an additional draw.) “Concord is a good Barefoot community,” she said. “It’s obviously very literate and environmentally aware.”The shop at 89 Thoreau St., across from the train depot, will host storytellers and family concerts Friday through Sunday as part of its grand opening. http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2010/05/30/barefoot_books_reborn/
Up, Up, Up!
This airborne adventure takes readers ballooning over lands near and far, all the way to the stars. The charming singalong song on the accompanying CD keeps spirits high, while the rhyming and playful text introduces all sorts of settings and vocabulary-building words. Book with CD edition includes song sung by Susan Reed.
Ages 3 to 7 years
Written By: Susan Reed
Illustrated By: Rachel Oldfield
Barefoot Books' editor-in-chief Tessa Strickland recently collaborated with independent bookstore Simply Books, located in Stockport, Northern England, to create a celebratory display based on our title Starlight Sailor. The results - a gorgeous display of paper boats that were created using the simple instructions from the book, and decorated by local children. The paper boats were so successful in the store that other stores in the area began to display them, even the butchers! This is a great activity that you can use in your own community - a fun way to increase awareness of your Ambassador business with your friends and local businesses.
Because of this innovative collaboration, Simply Books and Barefoot Books were invited to give a presentation at the Booksellers Association Conference in London on 16th May. Kay Celtel, a European Community Relations Manager (and recent addition to the Barefoot Books team), spoke to an audience of over 120 booksellers and publishers about the powers of working creatively with your community. It was a great honor to be asked to attend and a fantastic opportunity to showcase Barefoot Books.
Take advantage of this great sale this weekend only!
“You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.” — C. S. Lewis
1. We're Roaming in the Rainforest (An Amazon Adventure)
A trio of children embark on a daylong trek through the rainforest, discovering all sorts of exotic creatures in their natural habitats. The charming, rhyming text highlights an action verb for each creature, from chattering monkeys to crouching jaguars. The story is enhanced by nine pages of educational endnotes, including information about the Amazon, the creatures featured in the story, the peoples of the rainforest, and a full-page, full-color map of South America.
Ages 4 to 10 years
Written By: Laurie Krebs
Illustrated By: Anne Wilson
Hardcover $16.99
2. We're Sailing Down the Nile ( A Journey through Egypt)
Set sail along the mighty Nile River to experience the wonders of Egypt. The lilting, rhyming story text is followed by eleven pages full of educational information about ancient Egypt, gods and goddesses, a helpful map, and much more.
Ages 4 to 10 years
Written By: Laurie Krebs
Illustrated By: Anne Wilson Paperback $7.99 and Hardcover $16.999
3. We're Riding on a Caravan (An Adventure on the Silk Road)
Join the caravan for an exciting yearlong trek along China's ancient Silk Road. Following the rhyming, treasure-filled story are informational endnotes about the history of the Silk Road, the story of silk, important cities of China, and a full-spread map.
Ages 4 to 10 years
Written By: Laurie Krebs
Illustrated By: Helen Cann
Paperback $7.99 These beautiful children's books are multicultural, educational and very colorful. These books are very well written and easy to read for children from 4-10. Stop by my marketplace and place your order online. http://ladyd.barefootbooks.com Reading children's books over the summer will help keep their brains active. Enjoy this way of speedy traveling through reading the pages of children's books.
Happy Reading! ~ LadyD
“You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.” — C. S. Lewis
The best way to foster the love of reading is to read to your children when they are little.
Also reading aloud can expand their vocabulary. Your conversations can help them understand and enjoy more of what a book is about.
I recently read a report from the Scholastic study that the number of kids who are read to every day drops significantly at age 9.
Regardless of your child’s age or comprehension level, continue the reading together ritual. Here are some points to maximize your time together:
Listen to Audio books. This is a terrific way to engage your kids in a good story. Press “Play” during car rides, after dinner and computer time.
Pick the right books. Set aside books that seem way over your child’s head for another time. The goal is to understand and enjoy reading books. Try not to push his or her literary limits. Have fun reading what you love.
Revisit Favorites. A second read is a great chance to discuss subtleties and encourage children to move beyond the plot of a story. Repetition can be a good thing.
Who knows, when reading together you may discover a natural storyteller in your family who has the gift to adlib and interject scenarios out loud. Here you thought your child was reading every word from the story. Oh what an amazing discovery that would be.
So after reading together talk about “what happened” and “why it happened.” Ask your children if they could relate to the character.
Today parents have free access to an online library of digital books that you can read for free. This is another way for parents to encourage young people to read digital children’s books.
Providing an allowance for kid’s books is a good idea to help encourage reading, too. Giving gift subscriptions to a magazine for children to enjoy is a wonderful idea as well.
Support your local library with frequent visits and get to know your school library.
I think it is most important that children see their parents read a book. So model reading.
Praise your child for reading!
Children become a book reader one book at a time. When they reach the age of seven (if not earlier), most have begun reading.
It’s a wonderful adventure for families who love books and want to encourage reading. The benefits will last a lifetime. Happy reading!
“You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.” — C. S. Lewis
The avocado is an evergreen tree and requires full sun. Light, frequent watering is necessary. The tree itself has shallow roots so a nice bed of leaf mulch protects the roots and provides less watering. Plus, wide spreading branches with heavy foliage make dense shade beneath. The avocado tree drops its leaves quite heavily all year round.
Where I live in California we have two kinds of avocados grown here: Mexican and Guatemalan. We have lots of Fuerte avocado trees on our land and it is thought to be a hybrid of the two.
Guatemalan varieties find ideal climate protected from direct wind. Mexican varieties bear smaller fruit. Avocado trees are very hardy and will grow up to 30 feet and spread wider. We have a gentle slope on a hillside of 2 1/2 acres for all 77 avocado trees to grow and they have the best protection from the real strong winds.
The most important factor in growing avocados is good drainage. Most roots of the avocado tree are in the top 2 feet of soil, so water lightly and frequently. I would hate for you to see our water bill living in Southern California. So, us farmers welcome the rain!
An important note to remember is that Avocado trees cannot survive freezing temperatures. Only one winter did the temperature drop below 28 degrees for more than 4 hours and we lost our whole crop. We stumped all our trees and started all over. Oh, the perils of a farmer.
The other type of avocado that is found in abundance on our ranch is the Hass avocado with bumpy, pebbly skin. It is a very large spreading tree and its fruit is almost dark purple to black in color. Many times you will hear others refer to the avocado as buttery in taste. I love to hide avocados along with brightly colored eggs at Easter time for our Grandchildren to find. What fun!
Here is a list of other kinds of avocado fruit besides the Fuerte and Hass varieties:
Bacon, Duke, Gwen, Jim, Mexicola, Pinkerton (very large green fruit), Reed, Rincon, Santana, Whitsell, Wurtz, and the Zutano (pear-shaped fruit).
Perhaps you’ve seen Fingerling Avocados that are called cocktail avocados. What happens is that these small fingerling fruits form after the embryo of a pollinated flower dies. Winds or sudden heat cause this to happen especially on our Fuerte avocado trees. Pick the little mature avocados, peel them and cut in half. You’ll find that they’re always seedless.
You’ll also find lots of information online regarding health benefits of the avocado oil in natural skin care and hair products. there's avocado lip balm and face cream as well. I’ve also read many articles that monounsaturated fatty acids lower the bad cholesterol. So, the avocado has good fat for us!
Twice a year our son works the Holy Guaca-Moly stand (our friends own this business) as a side job at the local Avocado Festival and Street Fair. The company has 6 stands on the main street offering free samples of guacamole and chips and one tray sells for $7.00 I've heard of one avocado selling for $4.00 each in New York.
We are a small organic avocado farm using mushroom compost and water for our healthy trees. And we love the bees, too! The market price for us farmers will very and being organic we just get a nickel more per pound in sales. Doesn't seem fair sometimes with all the amount of work we do but it's rewarding in other ways. In fact we are the only organic farmers around in our area.
Whether you use the avocado in your salad dressing (avocado vinaigrette with cilantro, cumin), barbecue them, make them into ice cream, smash them into guacamole or just eat them plain, avocados are yummy and very good for you! Enjoy!
Barefoot Books is offering Kids Kitchen on sale right now. The recipe cards were $19.99 now $18.99
Kids' Kitchen
40 Fun and Healthy Recipes to Make and Share
Step into the kitchen for some child-friendly fun with food. The forty recipes in this colorful deck are based around the five main food groups, and offer a healthy and exciting way to learn about cooking.
Ages 8 and up
Written By: Fiona Bird
Illustrated By: Roberta Arenson
To buy these delightful recipe cards for a wonderful gift for the children, visit http://ladyd.barefootbooks.com ~ LadyD
“You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.” — C. S. Lewis
I grow lots of lavender around my property mostly because of its hardiness and also because it flourishes in my climate zone. The plant is drought tolerant, pest resistant and my rabbits and gophers leave it alone. The lavender plant is actually in the mint family.
I have heard of lavender farms in Oregon and Washington. I know we have some in California as well, mostly around Santa Barbara area. On my ranch, the lavender plant blooms all year round.
Many of my relatives in Greece say it grows well in the Mediterranean and I’ve read that the plant extends through Southern Europe, Arabia, India and Africa as well. There are around 40 different types of lavender. I’m only familiar with a few kinds, French, English and Spanish Lavender.
Some of my friends say lavender is the flower of positive thinking. Maybe it is, I just don’t know. What I can tell you from experience, lavender has healing characteristics for cuts and burns. Also, lavender reduces inflammation and repels insects. One of its best attributes is that it is the top ingredient in gels for muscle relaxing.
One of my favorite attractions to lavender is that it calms the senses, our nerves and helps for relaxation, you know, feeling less anxious. For the ladies, healing properties from this wonderful plant can be found in hand lotions and also placed in eye pillows for sleep. Just warm it up in the microwave and place it over your eyes for a very nice relaxing feel. Rubbing the lotion onto your feet is an incredibly relaxing and tingling-all-over sensational feeling.
I have used many of the lavender related products throughout my home. You can melt lavender bars of wax throughout the rooms for dispersing a peaceful aroma. Lavender room spray mists are available, too for laundry use, bed sheets and yes, even your pet! Plus, you'll find a bar of lavender soap can be refreshing to use with a sweet aroma to it.
Headaches can be treated with applying a few drops of lavender on your temples. If you are treating yourself to a massage, lavender essential oil enhances an overall feeling of relaxation with little fragrance if you have allergies. Spraying some lavender floral mist on sheets and pillowcases will help you towards a good night rest.
I also enjoy a room that visually glows with lavender scented candles. The beauty of this marvelous plant is that it not only creates atmosphere and ambiance but you can also bake with lavender buds added to sugar and add the flower buds to a cup of hot chocolate as well or perhaps have a cup of lavender tea.
One of my hand sewing activities during some free time that I enjoy is to make lavender sachets for gift giving to friends and lavender pillows for babies rooms that say, “Shh… baby sleeping!” It is so amazing to me just how much one person can benefit from one lavender plant. Truly lavender is a plant of luxury. I'm glad it's in my garden.
Want to know what Barefoot Books is all about? An online community of mother's at http://www.mindful-mama.com have a wonderful praise review to share with everyone. Business Spotlight: Barefoot Books
BY BREANNE HIGHT
With a business model Mindful Mama can appreciate, and wonderfully educational and exciting products, Barefoot Books is one truly inspirational company!
Barefoot Books strives to create high-quality picture books that enable children to explore the world's culturaldiversity, and to discover their own creative gifts at the same time. From small beginnings at home in 1993 to worldwide partners and offices across the globe, mama founders Nancy Traversy and Tessa Strickland have nurtured their business alongside their children (three boys, four girls and many books) to grow — and grow.
Barefoot Books believes that creativity is every child's birthright, that sharing art and story with children offers an intimate and playful way of building children's confidence, while developing their creative potential. Barefoot Books aims to introduce children from every walk of life to the arts in a way that respects the diversity of the world's many cultures, acknowledges the fragility of the planet and its life systems, and promotes the potential for humans to live together peacefully.
Nancy and Tessa set out to express their values not only with the books they create, but also in the way they do business. They stay true to their vision, while being open to change and receptive to the ideas of everyone they work with — from authors and artists to employees and customers, and most importantly to the children who are their readers.
I have always enjoyed visiting farmer’s markets, open-air markets and swap meets. Perhaps it’s the Greek in me that’s being drawn to these energized environments. But then I’m also an avocado grower and there definitely is a profit along with a feeling of satisfaction in being a vendor and selling your garden produce at farmer’s markets. I love a good deal!
The vendor’s at these outdoor functions are so fascinating to talk with. Did you know they have vendor etiquette rules? Meaning that you don’t draw the public into your tent space until after the customer starts to leave your neighbor’s vicinity. Then one can begin to introduce what they’re selling. Sometimes just leaving the shopper alone to browse with an occasional “Let me know if you have any questions” is a good approach.
Every nearby city within radius to where I live has a local certified organicfarmer’s market. Some markets vary from town to town. There are those who only cater to the local farmer’s and craftsmen. Then there are some markets that are open to retail products and have a special section for retailers to set up their wares.
Prices to sell will vary as well as entrance fees to the markets or perhaps none at all. Locations vary as well. I’ve seen several streets dedicated to the farmer’s market on a Saturday and midweek. I wasn’t too surprised to see one set up in a mall parking lot. They seem to be very popular now and are popping up everywhere and on any given day of the week and/or weekend. Do you have one in your area?
The table fees can vary and range from $10.00 to $400.00 for a larger event like a Street Fair. Of course advertising helps bring the crowds out with your local newspaper ads, street banners and signs, music performers and word of mouth referrals. I love supporting our local farmer’s market. How about you?
If you’re looking for homemade jewelry to unique aprons and handmade quilts, I’m sure you’ll find it at a local faire. Then there are tools, produce, doggie beds, stained glass artists, musicians to hear and excellent food for purchase as well.
I especially enjoy talking with the farmer vendors about how to grow purple potatoes or making your own candles and especially sampling local honey from our beekeepers. Just seeing rows of market umbrellas and 10 X 10 pop up tents are a great visual to see. Very importantly for the vendor is having the correct vendor’s license for your area to legally sell your wares and then report your taxes.
I myself have sold children’s books awhile back (in my younger days) at various farmer’s markets, along with my avocados during the warm spring and summer months and have enjoyed talking with so many wonderful people. I have met beautiful folks from India, England and all over. I find children’s books to be a limited market but I would always find a grandma, young mother and especially teachers stopping by my bookstore.
My avocado business has grown much larger now and my bookstore is available for online shoppers. My vendor days have faded to fond memories. Now and then I'll set up a 10 X 10 tent or my market umbrella to set up and sell at a local community event-outreach... but looking ahead, you will mostly find me purchasing locally grown fruits and vegetables early in the early morning hours from our local growers and farmers.
I have also done school fundraisers and love that type of exchange as well. What would be ideal for me is to write my own children’s books someday. I think I would like that very much indeed!
If you're interested in having your own business that you can run from home and becoming a Barefoot Books Ambassador yourself, send me an email and I'll help you get started. also, if you live in Southern California and you know of an event that you feel might be of int4rest to me, please let me know of that as well. And especially if you would like Barefoot Books to come to any of your school events for a book fair, holiday boutique sale, give me a call.
Have you discovered a farmer's market in your area? Today I'm going to a street fair with my grandson and family. They estimate one million people in attendance.
Wish me luck!
Cheers,
LadyD
Your comments are welcomed and encouraged! Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy your stay at Barefoot Books-LadyD
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=dd0e9fb7-594e-4ebf-8bfc-18674b37f860)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=74dea0c9-99e9-47e1-9c20-ba26e881bd30)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=df55008f-fead-441c-bb38-98aa303ff0ac)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=a40f33b9-2548-4b79-acd3-c078e217d317)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=5172e9c7-8832-42c5-88c8-d19af05ca0aa)