ONEWorld | a new children’s book imprint

Our focus in all that we do when creating or collaborating on the development of intellectual property (books, films & music, etc.) is that the message is positive.

Not ‘rose-colored glasses’ denying reality kind of positive but a belief that even when things are hard and bad things happen… that there is hope. But hope is not a solution. It should drive us to action to make things happen. I believe things are hopeless only if you give up.

We want our books, any films based on them and now music (as that effort shapes up) to bear that message. And we want them to also have a strong thread and theme of personal accountability and responsibility for our own lives and to have faith in our ability to control what happens in life. I think it’s particularly important that children learn this as soon as possible.

Another aspect of modern life today, that we want to address, is reflected in a thought provoking article titled : What if the Secret to Success Is Failure? Here’s a quote from it:

The most critical missing piece, Randolph explained as we sat in his office last fall, is character — those essential traits of mind and habit that were drilled into him at boarding school in England and that also have deep roots in American history. “Whether it’s the pioneer in the Conestoga wagon or someone coming here in the 1920s from southern Italy, there was this idea in America that if you worked hard and you showed real grit, that you could be successful,” he said. “Strangely, we’ve now forgotten that. People who have an easy time of things, who get 800s on their SAT’s, I worry that those people get feedback that everything they’re doing is great. And I think as a result, we are actually setting them up for long-term failure. When that person suddenly has to face up to a difficult moment, then I think they’re screwed, to be honest. I don’t think they’ve grown the capacities to be able to handle that.”

The development of Personal Character. The strength of which not only builds better lives but also better communities and country. In some ways we’ve lost sight of that. And what better way to help reinstill or resurrect a focus on that than to make it one of the themes for a new children’s book imprint.

The first title, coming out for the holidays, is our The Forgotten Ornament (we’ll be announcing details on it within the next week). We have twelve other titles slated to come out in 2012.