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| Kate DePalma (photo: Sarah Soldano) |
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Kate DePalma is executive editor at Barefoot Books, where she has developed dozens of picture books over more than a decade, including many authored and co-authored titles. She holds an M.A. in Classics from the University of Texas and is a published poet and scholar. DePalma lives with their husband and daughter in Pittsburgh, Pa.
As executive editor, DePalma has spent more than a decade working directly with authors, illustrators, singers, and musicians to create Barefoot Books' Singalongs series. Here, DePalma chats with Shelf about the process of making multilayered media and the impact the books have had on children and caretakers.
How would you describe this series to readers unfamiliar with them?
Barefoot Books' singalong collection consists of colorful, educational picture books that come with a QR code that leads to both an audio singalong and video animation. They're books you can read, watch, sing, listen, dance, and move along to. Our more recent singalongs, such as Earth Song and The Rattlin' Bog, include educational endnotes in the back of the book. Earth Song, for example, covers the calendar, seasons, orbits, and stars, and The Rattlin' Bog has information about Irish peat bogs and the creatures that live there, as well as plant and animal life cycles. We also have Spanish editions of some of the titles.
And what is your job with this series?
My fellow editors and I collaborate closely with the authors, illustrators, musicians, and animators to create every element of these books. We're a small and scrappy team, and we all wear lots of different hats! (I've even written three singalongs under the name Sunny Scribens.)
There are so many things going on with each book: text, illustration, audio, video.... How do you pull everything together?
Barefoot Books is maybe a little unusual in that our editors are also art directors. So when it comes to making singalong books, we also get to dip our toes into being music producers and animation directors. We joke that we never make books the same way twice, and singalongs are no exception. Picture books are already such complex, interwoven projects, and adding two additional layers of media makes these projects an absolute beast to create. If you find an error late in the game, that might mean amendments to the text, the illustrations, the audio track, and the animation.
How did the series get started?
The history of this series reaches back even beyond my 14 years at Barefoot Books to the late '90s. Our first singalong books came with audio CDs, and many of those classic titles, like If You're Happy and You Know It! and Port Side Pirates!, are still in print and going strong all these years later. Our bestseller The Animal Boogie (first published in 2000) was inspired by a song that CEO and co-founder Nancy Traversy's children made up when they were small. It's since sold over two million copies.
When the YouTube era dawned, we started animating the illustrations to the music and they took off! Our YouTube channel has half a billion views, and most of that is our singalong videos.
Who are some of the authors, illustrators, singers, and musicians who work on this series?
We collaborate with a broad and ever-growing pool of collaborators on these books. There are some Barefoot faves you'll see again and again in our collection: illustrators like Debbie Harter and Sophie Fatus as well as musicians like Susan Reed and The Flannery Brothers. But by and large, each project brings a different set of collaborators. Lots of the musicians adapt classic songs, such as Over in the Meadow, which is a traditional English song, while other singalongs are originals, like Boogie in the Bronx! and Twice as Many Friends. Those two were composed by Sol y Canto, an award-winning Pan-Latin ensemble led by Puerto Rican/Argentine singer and percussionist Rosi Amador and New Mexican guitarist, singer, and composer Brian Amador.
Your website says the books "build the mind-body connection"--could you talk about that?
These books have so many layers and give children so many ways to engage with storytelling and educational content. The music encourages little ones to get up and move their bodies as they listen, look, and watch. This kind of multisensory engagement is so good for little brains and bodies as they develop, helping to build listening and gross motor skills.
What kind of feedback do you get about the books?
We get the most wonderful fan mail about our singalongs--stories about how they're magic for library story times and classroom dance breaks, photos of children who carry the books around as transitional objects or who love to lay the books out in a colorful mosaic of covers, and of course videos of kids really giving it their all singing and dancing along.
These books seem to have become particularly popular with caretakers of children with autism?
We have gotten a number of messages over the years from parents and teachers of children on the autism spectrum letting us know that our singalongs have had a special resonance with their kids. One parent shared: "The reason [my son] can now speak is because of Barefoot Books. He has every Barefoot book possible, but his favorite are all the singalongs. They go on holiday with him, they go to school with him and most of all he makes sure nobody touches them. We are so grateful for Barefoot books and everything they have taught [my son] and how they have brought so much joy to his life." We are honored that our singalongs have had this special impact.
How many books are there now? Do you have a favorite?
We have over 40 singalong books. One of my all-time favorite Barefoot memories is making Dinosaur Rap with my dear friend Mikey Henry Jr. We spent hours listening to old-school hip-hop tracks and taking notes for inspiration. We modeled the intro on the iconic intro to "Here Comes the Hotstepper" by Ini Kamoze, slowly layering in different sounds that build in intensity.
Our latest singalong, Earth Song, came out this fall, and it describes how the sun and moon create the Earth's seasonal and daily cycles. The art is done by the amazing Mariona Cabassa, who illustrated award-winners such as A Gift for Amma and Barefoot Books Water.
Our next singalong, releasing March 2025, is Take Me Out to the Ball Game!, a reimagining of the classic baseball anthem introducing kids to the diverse history and culture of America's pastime. Of course, the back-of-the-book resources include further details on facts about baseball, the basics of how to play a game, and more. It's such a fun book. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness