Thrilldom day in Kansas City yesterday. I spent two weeks last fall doing author visits in schools in Liberty, MO, where the kids, teachers, and librarians are grand. It turned out I visited a school where one of the families had met me several years ago–in Michigan–when I was doing an author visit. (I didn’t
I’m mostly overwhelmed by Twitter (which my son Jonathan introduced me to) but I’m also impressed at the cool things I learn from reading National Wildlife Federation tweets–something I started doing when NWF and American Girl teamed up, thanks to my Lanie books. A tweet this morning led me to a contest for kids who care about art and endangered
I could pretty much write about this topic every single bingle day. I definitely talk about it every single bingle time I do an author visit. My romance with books started with my mom, who grew up in a tough household in small towns in Iowa. She coaxed my dad–the storyteller–toward books. (When I spoke
Every time I go a-wandering, I’m impressed (and a little bit embarassed) about what I don’t know about the world. An Icelandic proverb says, “Keen is the eye of the visitor”…and since good writing leans on good observation, travel often shakes things loose in my brain. Being a writer makes me pay better attention. So (at the
Lanie’s best friend Dakota has waltzed off to Indonesia, where she is getting to work on saving orangutans. And where did that idea come from? Simple: I was visiting an international school in Indonesia (with a terrific orantuan project) when I was contacted about writing the doll of the year books. How fun to be
When I was writing the Lanie books, I made Emily a pizza lover for several reasons. First of all, it gave me the chance to create a dad who would make up fun and funny recipes for his kids. Also, it set up a pizza garden–and I wanted a pizza garden as part of the lure to get Emily outside. Finally,
A family whose four-year-old son was adopted from Ethiopia hosted a visit from me to Houston to speak in two schools and do a presentation about Ethiopia Reads. Dakota, Lanie’s best friend, is going to an international school in Indonesia–something that popped out of my real life–but I sometimes forget about the international schools right
Since Lanie’s books are all about loving the dirt, plants, birds, butterflies, and other animals of a place, I had to get to know her place well. Some of the threads I had in mind ended up fizzling. But some of these spots became part of scenes in the new American Girl books. Any Bostonites
Wow. What girls these days can’t do…My daughter, for instance, is the one who set up this blog and also my Facebook page. And recently two girls named Christa and Mia did a podcast with me (my first). It will probably not surprise you to hear that I do not know how to do a podcast.
Our kids got the gardening gene from both sides of the family. Leonard’s mom told me that even as a girl, growing up on a farm in Kansas, she always chose the outside chores over the inside ones. Leonard says when he was a child, she grew corn and beets and peas and carrots and
1997–2025 Jane Kurtz. © All rights reserved. Privacy policy.
Website services by Winding Oak, LLC.
Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission on some books in this website if you click through and make a purchase..