Winter Sale!

Check out our Winter Sale from December 29 - February 2! You can save up to 80% on many great titles, including some of our personal favorites: Hidden Hippo, The Barefoot Book of Monsters and My Daddy is a Pretzel.

For the best savings, click here to see our discontinued titles - some are priced as low as $1.99!

The Barefoot Book of Pirates

The Barefoot Book of Pirates - This book is a lot of fun! I wasn't sure if my daughter would like this or not, as most of the stories in The Barefoot Book of Princesses didn't hold her attention very well. I thought it might have been because she was too young, so I didn't even think of reading to her from this book until she saw it one day and requested it. We have read most of the stories, and she definitely seems to like this one better than the Princesses book.

Her favorite story is Music Charms the Pirates, which is a Japanese tale that tells how Mochimitsu used his music to win in a fight against the pirates who wanted to take his
ship. Another favorite is Pirate Grace, although I think she found the part where Grace took the little boy a bit scary the first time we read it. This book was written by Richard Walker and Illustrated by Olwyn Whelan who also illustrated The Barefoot Book of Princesses.

Now that I know how much Lissie likes pirates, I am looking forward to getting the Folkmanis Pirate Puppet for her. We are giving one to my nephew for Christmas, and it is lovely. There is also a beautiful 100-piece Pirates Puzzle by Mudpuppy Press that is based on the cover illustration from the book.

Free Shipping Offer Extended

The free shipping offer has been extended through Friday December 19th, so there is still time to take advantage of this last promotion before Christmas!

The free copy of The Prince's Bedtime promotion will still end tonight at midnight though.

The Princess and the White Bear King

The Princess and the White Bear King - I probably say this far too often, but this really might be my favorite Barefoot Book. The book itself is a gorgeous cloth-bound hardcover. The illustrations by Nicoletta Ceccoli are ethereal and whimsical and perfectly depict the magical land where this story takes place, and the story CD read by Miranda Richardson is enthralling. I am not generally a huge fan of story CDs, except in the car, but the first time I played this my 3 year old and I were snuggled together on the couch and we listened from beginning to end without a word (and if you knew my 3 year old, you would know that never happens!).

In the afterword, author Tanya Robyn Batt talks about her influences for this story. She says it "...combines the themes of three classic wonder tales East of the Sun, West of the Moon, The Black Bull of Norway and The White Bear King" and she has done a wonderful job of combining them into something that is fresh and original, but still has the comforting familiar feel of a classic fairy tale.

FREE Shipping and a FREE copy of The Prince's Bedtime

Now through December 16, Barefoot Books is offering FREE shipping on all orders and a FREE hardcover copy of The Prince's Bedtime with orders over $50.

We just got our copy of this book and it's really cute. The prince is having trouble sleeping. His parents try all sorts of things to get him to sleep, but nothing helps. Until one night an old woman shows up with something in her bag that puts him right to sleep.

Motherbridge of Love

Motherbridge of Love - This was our first Barefoot Book, from the library, back before I even knew what a Barefoot Book was. My daughter chose this one pretty randomly (perhaps she was attracted to the gorgeous cover illustration), and we read it a lot of times before we renewed it, then we read it a lot more times and returned it, and now we have our own copy.

The text for this book comes from a poem that was sent anonymously to the charity Mother Bridge of Love that says it's goals are to set up the bridges between "China and the West", "adoptive and birth culture" and "the rich and the poor". Text royalties from this book are donated to Mother Bridge of Love, and if you are interested in downloading a copy of the original poem, it is available here. To see the illustrations from this book and hear the text read aloud by Amy Tan click here to see the e-card.

This is a beautiful book, regardless of whether you have an adopted child.

Upcoming

We just got a new shipment of books! We've been busy reading them all so I can come tell you about them. Lissie finally got her long awaited copy of A Dragon on the Doorstep, and can't get enough of The Prince's Bedtime. Ariana is enjoying Arthur of Albion and The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems--especially since she can read them for school. I love that Barefoot offers books for older children that are as beautifully illustrated as their books for younger children.

Jack and the Beanstalk

Jack and the Beanstalk - This retelling of the classic tale of Jack and the Beanstalk is adorably illustrated by Niamh Sharkey. This version is well written (of course) and very similar to the one I was read as a child. I enjoyed reading this to my daughter who did not enjoy it as much as I did because, as she informed me, she likes "Jack, his mom, the old woman, the hen and the harp, but NOT the giant! " When we were finished, she looked at the pictures, gave the book back to me and said "here mommy, you can have this for one of your samples". I suppose she can't love them all!

I wanted to update this post, because a short while after I wrote it, my daughter rediscovered this book, and we have been reading it non-stop ever since. It has become one of her favorites.

If you enjoy the illustrations of Niamh Sharkey as much as I do, be sure to check out our 12x16 Jack and the Beanstalk print.