The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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New fiction list from Barefoot

06.08.08 Caroline Horn

Independent publisher Barefoot Books has launched a new fiction list aimed at readers aged nine to 12 years. The company plans to publish four new multicultural fiction titles each year.

Barefoot Books traditionally publishes illustrated children's titles. Its first fiction title, A Little Leap Forward (Clare Farrow, illustrated by Helen Cann), has been published to coincide with the start of the Olympics in Beijing. The book, about growing up in China's cultural revolution, is based on the real-life childhood of Guo Yue.

Barefoot editor-in-chief Tessa Strickland said the fiction list would reflect the company's picture book values. "The emphasis will be on stories that introduce children to other cultures and traditions, and on content that is symbolic and allegorical."

Barefoot is also keen to support new talent. Next autumn it will publish a first novel by Richard Knight, a former English teacher, called Winter Shadow. "I've also just acquired a fabulous trilogy set in Greenland by Danish writer Jorn Riel," said Strickland. "Jorn Riel is very highly regarded in Europe but is as yet unpublished in the English language."

Further novels under consideration include two Spanish novels, one set in present-day Baghdad and the other more allegorical, as well as a coming-of-age story set in a tribal community in Papua New Guinea.

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