Getting Back to Natur

hessnatur creates pure and natural clothing, with a simple principle: to respect the planet and the people who produce and wear their clothes.

All of their exclusive designs are made from 100% natural fibers. They offer a wide range of natural fibers, from cotton and linen, to silk, wool, and luxurious fibers including cashmere, alpaca and mohair. Their goal is to be 100% organic in everything we make. All of their pure cotton is 100% organic. Only the limited availability of other natural fibers in organic quality has prevented them from being 100% organic. That’s why they are pioneers in helping to develop organic farming.

They also ensure that their natural fibers stay pure throughout the manufacturing process, so that no toxins from dyes, bleaches or other chemicals can harm the earth, or the people who wear or produce the clothes.

The U.S. on line shop for hessnatur will be opening soon. Be the first to learn about the organic clothing they create by signing up for their newsletter, or request a catalog.

Founded more than 30 years ago by European environmentalist Heinz Hess, hessnatur designs organic and natural clothing for women, infants and toddlers. Since their founding, they have been governed by a simple principle: human beings should live in harmony with each other and with nature.

hessnatur is located in Butzbach, a village in a hilly part of Germany, near the Taunus and Westerwald Mountains and the Rhine River. It’s an area of great natural beauty and the people, naturalists at heart, have been leaders in the European environmental movement for over 40 years.

The building where the staff spends their days working is as environmentally sound as they can make it. They climb the stairs to get to their offices. They have no air conditioning, which tests their commitment to the environment every August – German summers can get surprisingly hot. They have a café on the top floor, with long tables where they can all share excellent lunches prepared by Thomas. You haven’t lived until you’ve tried his eggplant schnitzel! Their children are welcome; spouses and partners join them for lunch when they can. And they invite you to join them, whenever you’re in the neighborhood.

Respect for the planet and for its people is fundamental to the way they do business, interact with their partners and each other. Their commitment to the quality of the clothing is matched by a commitment to the quality of the lives of those who create the clothing, and to those who wear it.

Clothes are more than what you wear, they’re how you choose to live.

Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
Peace Begins in the Home

Cybils: 2007 Fiction Picture Book Nominations

I’m faced with a different dilemma each day. This morning, I discovered that so far, one Kane/Miller picture book from 2007 has been nominated in the 2007 Cybils Fiction Picture Book category. The dilemma is now deciding which one picture book we’ve published this year that I would nominate if I could.

Anne-Marie of A Readable Feast has nominated Samsara Dog, a sophisticated picture book for older readers that discusses the idea of reincarnation. Both text and illustrations were created with care and both Helen Manos and Julie Vivas did an amazing job in this collaboration that touches on the Buddhist concepts of Samsara and Nirvana.

Samsara Dog lived many lives. Some of his lives were long. Some lasted only a few days. Dog never remembered them. He lived each life as it came, until he learned the most important lesson of all.

In one of his lives Dog lived on the street…Dog loved nobody. Dog trusted nobody. Dog lived for himself…

Samsara Dog lived many lives: with a biker gang, as a sniffer dog, was born very small and very sick, shared his next life with a street juggler, came back as a rescue dog, was welcomed into a big house with four girls who adored him, and finally, he found the boy.

When he was with the boy, Dog’s heart skimmed like a song. He loved the boy more than he loved himself…Nothing was better than being with the boy.

Illustration from Samsara Dog,
written by Helen Manos and illustrated by Julie Vivas
(Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 2007)

I can’t possibly explain how touching this story truly is. Originally published in Australia by Working Title Press, Samsara Dog a book that one must first read, alone. There should be time set aside for reflection afterwards – and a chance to wipe away your tears before sharing this beautiful treasure with loved ones. And trust me, you will want to.

The great thing about working for such a small company is that each and every one of us has a say in the books that are published. We read them to ourselves, we read them to our children, we read them aloud to one another. And in the end, we only publish books that we are all 110% enthusiastic about. We brainstorm about who would buy it, how it would be used in a classroom / story time setting, and how we would market it to the adults who sell it to consumers (our bookseller friends who have the arduous task of choosing books for their store among the thousands that are available each season).

The difficulty I have then, is that I am equally connected to and could just as easily recommend any of the following for a nomination in the fiction category for this year: The Zoo by Suzy Lee (South Korea), New Clothes for New Year’s Day by Hyun-Ju Bae (South Korea), The Story of Cherry the Pig by UtakoYamada (Japan), And What Comes After a Thousand? by Annette Bley (Germany), The Short and Incredibly Happy Life of Riley by Colin Thompson and Amy Lissiat (Australia), and My Cat Copies Me by Yoon-duck Kwon (South Korea).

Illustration from And What Comes After a Thousand?
by Anette Bley
(Kane/Miller Book Publishers, 2007)

I would not be able to choose between Could You? Would You? by Trudy White (Australia) and Who’s Hiding? by Satoru Onishi (Japan) for the non-fiction picture book category nomination.

I realize that these are not all of the picture books we’ve published in 2007 but I know children’s books. After all, I’m surrounded by the best books from around the world on a regular basis and several of the nominated books from the Cybils list sit on my son’s bookshelves at home as I want to expose him to all types of books, but of course, only the best.

I can’t imagine being on any committee where selecting only one or a few winners is the end result. It’d be like asking a parent to choose their favorite child. Therefore, I’m not going to select just one Kane/Miller title to nominate this year. I’ll leave that up to the readers. After all, I’m going to be busy trying to narrow down which wonderful books from around the world we’ll be publishing for the fall 2008 season.

Happy Healthy Hip Parenting
Peace Begins in the Home