My Love Affair with Children's Books

I first began stockpiling children's books at the ripe old age of 18. At that time, I thought I would become an elementary teacher. I was always on the look out for books that were beautifully illustrated or that told the stories of children from many different cultures. (Often I was lucky enough to find books that fit both these criteria.)

Life took me on a different path, to seminary and then to 11 years as a faith-based community organizer. I could still linger for a very long time over the children's book section in a store, but I stopped buying them for my own collection.

After falling in love with my husband, I soon became a stepmom to a wonderful 10 year old who would even let me read aloud to him (especially if the book was funny.) When I gave birth to my son 3 years ago, my children's book stockpiling began again in earnest.

I soon found that trying to balance motherhood to a high needs infant and life as a community organizer was more than I wanted to handle, and I left a job I had always loved to become a stay at home mom. One day when I was reading the blog Hip2Save in an attempt to pinch our pennies as much as could on one income, I read a post about a giveaway from Barefoot Books.

I hopped over to the Barefoot site and found some adorable board books illustrated with hand-sewn jeweled fabric art for my son. When the company's catalog arrived along with my books I discovered two intriguing things: 1) many of the books for older children told folk tales from all around the world, and 2) most of the books were sold by people who had home-based businesses.

After a lot of thought I decided to become a Barefoot Books Ambassador myself. It seemed like a great way to continue my love affair with children's books, build a bigger library for my son, and earn some much needed income to boot!

I didn't realize at the time that this decision would also lead me to become passionate once again about how we can bring books to life for all children, especially those who don't always see characters who look like them in an average children's book.

As a parent watching my son grow from baby to toddler to now almost preschooler (how did that happen??), I've also been in awe of just how much influence I have over his life. What can I do to help him discover all of his gifts and grow into who he's meant to be? I don't have tons of answers, but I know that a love of reading will take him far in life whatever path he may choose.

Whether you're a parent, educator, or just someone who loves timeless children's books, I hope you'll check back on my blog regularly. I've got a lot planned, including literacy tips, craft ideas for bringing stories alive, sneak peeks into some of my favorite Barefoot Books, and more.