At Barefoot Books, we stand for justice for Black people everywhere.
We abhor the recent murder of George Floyd. We not only grieve his life – we also grieve the fact that this is an experience common to Black Americans and Black people all over the world.
Our mission is to open children’s hearts, minds and worlds. An essential part of this is helping adults raise anti-racist children. Talking explicitly about issues like culture, race, religion, abilities and sexual orientation is crucial – for children and adults alike.
Many anti-racist children’s book lists, such as this one from Diverse Book Finder, are being circulated right now. There are also lists that highlight Black children's book creators such as this one from the Brown Bookshelf; we encourage you to read these books to the children in your life.
As adults, it’s our role to educate ourselves and make sure children receive and understand the messages of these books with open hearts and clear minds. To support this effort, we’re offering a free discussion guide, "How to facilitate important conversations with kids using diverse and inclusive books.” We also invite you to watch a short video, “How to raise anti-racist, kind, global kids,” by Homa Sabet Tavangar, author of Global Kids.
Season after season, we strive to create books that serve as windows and mirrors for children everywhere. In recent days, we’ve also been reflecting on ways we can further foster diversity in our company culture. We will continue to focus on increasing the diversity of our home office team and consulting with expert readers of all backgrounds in our product development process. We’ve also committed to taking further steps with in-house diversity and anti-bias training.
With every book we create, we aim to push social justice forward. It is a process that requires constant reflection and learning. We know that our work making books to open hearts and minds is not the end of our responsibility to help create a more just world. We pledge never to stop finding ways to do better.
Yours in solidarity,
Nancy Traversy & the Barefoot Books Team
