A LITTLE MORE ABOUT
BARB'S PEOPLE BUILDERS
 Owners: Kosta and Barbara Radisavljevic, Templeton, CA
History: Barb's People Builders was founded in January of
1992, a few months after our son Jason*, whom we had taught at home from grades 5-8, died
in a jet ski accident at Pyramid Lake in Los Angeles County, California. This left a big
hole in our lives, since no other children were left at home. Most of our close friends
were home schoolers and they had provided much of our spiritual support after
Jason's death. We couldn't envision ourselves leaving the home school community.
At first I (Barb) offered my support to those who sought me out with questions
about how to teach English, since they knew I had taught English and writing in
both public and private schools. I constantly found myself recommending my
favorite resources . Gradually it
dawned on me that I didn't need to keep referring my friends to other suppliers for these
books. I could sell them myself. And that's how it started.
After that it just grew. We began going to home school conferences later
in 1992. Our first was in Fresno, California. Then we began to go farther -- to the state
conventions in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado -- even Ohio,
Pennsylvania, and last of all, Virginia. Traveling was interesting, but exhausting. We
enjoyed meeting and interacting with home schoolers and other vendors, and we still miss
that very much. But we have pretty much stopped the home school convention circuit because
my husband developed rheumatoid arthritis and he could no longer help much in loading and unloading
and setting up and tearing down our large booth.
We live in a small town with many home school families, but not enough to
support a business such as ours. We couldn't afford to print a catalog that would do
justice to all the titles we carry, and we are constantly getting new things. Because few
people we haven't met at conferences have heard of us, we had to find new ways to display
and sell our books. So we started supplying Christian school book fairs. We
enjoyed doing this until Kosta could not even drive the truck anymore.
Then I discovered the Internet. It became possible to meet people from all
over the world, put my catalog before people without great expense, and change it easily
whenever I add or subtract something. and that's where we are today. We have begun to add used books in all subject areas -- not just textbooks -- to our
catalog. We hope that will make it easier for you to get inexpensive or out of print
books. We hope to add more articles as we travel less,
and eventually to write some of our own curriculum materials.
A couple of years ago, Kosta had both hips
replaced, one at a time. His recovery has been slow, but he's been swimming to
build up strength, and I'm happy to report that he no longer needs the cane you
see in the picture. He can't walk as fast or as far as I can yet, but he's
making more and more progress. But I'm content to stay at home now and work in
the garden when I have spare time. When I was traveling, we always seemed to be
gone at planting and harvest times. See my
gardening blog, which I add
to when I have time.
If you have any questions you'd like answered about our company, please feel free to ask.
 Thanks
for dropping by to get acquainted.
* Jason panning
for gold in American River about a year before his death.
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