Memorial Day Weekend Sale

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Here are some of my favorite Barefoot Books, in every age range! 

Click the image of the book to go directly to that item!

 Baby's First Journal (Age: Babies - 1 year)

Record all of the special moments of baby's first year in this beautiful baby book. Includes sections for baby's "firsts", favorites, family tree, photos and more! Baby's First Journal makes a great gift for new parents! I have given this baby book as a gift at a few showers and I always get rave reviews from the new moms and dads. I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to looks through her copy and learn about her first year of life!

 Who's in the Garden? (Age: 1 - 4 years)
This adorable book asks your little one to answer the question "Who's coming to see how my garden grows?" By looking through the holes in the page, children are able to see which little critter is coming to visit the garden next. I love the bouncy, rhyming text in this book and the illustrations by Jill McDonald are so colorful and fun to look at. This book is a joy to read over and over again.

Jack and the Beanstalk (Age: 3 - 7 years)
A retelling of the classic tale about a boy who trades his cow for a handful of beans. The whimsical illustrations give us a new take on a traditional story without losing the old world charm.  This magical book is sure to be a favorite for your children! This book is available with or without a CD. The CD holds a recording of the story read by Richard Hope - complete with sound effects! Books on CD are a great way to keep the little ones entertained on long card rides!

Winter Shadow (Age: 7 years and up)
Maria finds a lone wolf cub on her walk to school and goes against her village elders wishes when she adopts the cub whom she names Shadow. It doesn't take long for Maria and Shadow to become inseparable. But what will happen when a mysterious storyteller comes to town and Shadow disappears?

This is honestly one of the most visually appealing chapter books I have ever seen. Each page has beautiful illustrations that work around the text. I think this is a great choice for a child who is just starting to get into longer, chapter books. The books explores the delicate balance between humans and nature and the ties between an individual and her community.

My introduction to Barefoot Books

When my friend Megan was planning my baby shower last year she wanted me to choose a theme for the shower. I didn't really have a theme in mind, so I told my friend to just do whatever she wanted. Well, Megan came up with a novel (pardon the pun) idea - we had a book themed shower!

When the invitations for the shower went out they asked guests to bring a favorite children's book instead of a greeting card. I thought it was a great idea! I have loved books since I was a kid and I was excited to start growing my daughter's library.

I got so many new kid's books at that shower, some of the classics like "The Runaway Bunny", "Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel" and "Where the Wild Things Are". I also got several books I had never heard of which was a lot of fun too.

One of the new books was called "I Took the Moon for a Walk" by Carolyn Curtis and Alison Jay. My friend Emily said it was one of her son's favorite books and that it was also a story she didn't mind reading over and over again.

That night as I looked through the gifts I had received at my shower I took some time to read "I Took the Moon for a Walk" and I quickly fell in love with it. The illustrations are dreamlike and beautiful and the language is lyrical and descriptive at the same time.

It opens with:
"I took the moon for a walk last night / It followed behind like a still summer kite / Though there wasn't a string or tail in sight / when I took the moon for a walk."

The story follows a boy on a nighttime stroll with the moon "sharing his sweet sleepy light". The boy meets several nocturnal animals on his walk as well as other people enjoying the evening. As a bonus, there's a section at the end of the book that talks about moon phases and gives more information about moon phases.

My daughter is only 6 months old and is too young to ask for a special book or toy. But, I know that Allison loves this book. Every time we read it she smiles as soon as I read the first sentence. I look forward to the day she starts really pointing to the animals in the picture, to the day that she looks into the night sky and smiles to see the moon looking down on her and to the day she starts reading the book herself. I know this book will be a favorite for a long time.

Several months after I received my first Barefoot Book I decided to find out if there were more books like it out there. I asked my friend Emily about it and she explained that Barefoot Books aren't sold in stores but are available online or through individual "ambassadors".

I found Barefoot Books easily online and after browsing through their books for a few minutes I realized I was in love. I wanted all of them! As I was browsing the site I came across a link to become a Barefoot Books Ambassador. I was more than a little intrigues about the idea of selling these beautiful books and when I realized that it was free to sign up, I just couldn't resist!

I'm still very new to this but I'm very excited to be an Ambassador for Barefoot Books. I think every child should have access to engaging books like "I Took the Moon for a Walk".

Who was Mother Goose?

I never realized how many Mother Goose Rhymes were packed in my head until I had a baby. Suddenly I found myself singing songs and rhymes that I hadn't thought about for years like "Hey Diddle Diddle", "This Little Piggie" and "Rock-a-Bye Baby". Wow, how did these rhymes get stored for all of those years?

Discovery my lost store of Mother Goose rhymes made me wonder where Mother Goose came from. I never thought about it as a child, she was always depicted as an old woman or a goose surrounded by children.


As I pondered the origin of Mother Goose I wondered if she was ever an actual person or merely a fictional character. I turned to Google first for the answer to my question and of course I wasn't disappointed by the results. I've gathered the information I thought was important and decided to share it here.

The first written account of Mother Goose doesn't tell us much. In 1650 the French critic Jean Loret mentioned Mother Goose in a monthly periodical which contains the line "comme un conte de la Mere Oye" which means "like a Mother Goose story". This text tells us that the concept of Mother Goose was well known at least in France in the mid 17th century.

The second text referring to Mother Goose was published in 1697 by a French man named Charles Perrault. The book was a called "Histories and Tales of Long Ago, with Morals". The title page of the book said "Tales of Mother Goose" and had a picture of an old woman telling stories. The book included stories like "Little Red Riding Hood", "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty" but it did not contain any of the rhymes that we associate with Mother Goose today. This book was translated into English in 1729.

Newbury Publishing House in London published a book called "Mother Goose's Melody - or Sonnets for the Cradle" in 1780. This books contained over 50 traditional English nursery rhymes and songs along with illustrations. An American edition of this book was published in 1780.

It seems from the time "Mother Goose's Melody" was published most books referencing Mother Goose contained the traditional English rhymes and songs that we know of today.

There are rumors and urban legends stating that Mother Goose was a real person but there aren't any facts to support these. It seems Mother Goose is simply a collection of tales, songs and rhymes that were passed from one generation to the next by word of mouth. There's something almost magical about that fact, it's as if Mother Goose rhymes are a part of some sort of collective consciousness. It boggles my mind just a little bit to think that the songs I sing to my daughter have been song to children for over 200 years. I hope that someday she will sing the same songs to her child.

 Want to share Mother Goose with your children? "Mother Goose Remembers" is a beautiful collection of 46 time honored nursery rhymes. This book includes a CD with rhymes and songs from the book