As I’m packing to get ready to fly for the celebration of the Kerlan award, I’m thinking about the always surprising aspects of travel. When I was in Nice, France, speaking at a conference for international teachers, I ordered a seafood salad, and it came with these teeny octopi in it. I did not want
Sometimes when I’m doing author visits and people hear that I’m from Kansas, they say, “Isn’t Kansas cold?” Well, we moved down the Great Plains to balmy Kansas. So it was hard…especially after I spent a chunk of winter in Indonesia…to have March go roaring out like the proverbial lion. This was the pathetic view
In March 1997, the fax machine in my office space would start making its whirring noises in the middle of the night almost every night…a super librarian doing her super job of planning an author visit with me to ICS and two other of the international schools in Addis Ababa. It was going to be
This is one of my favorite photographs among many powerful photographs taken by my son Jonathan, now a professional photo-journalist in Birmingham, Alabama. One adoptive dad pointed out the photo tickles memories and sensations of a painting of the Last Supper. You can see a much more stunning version here: http://jkgphoto.com/home/?p=60 The photo matches some stunning efforts to
My heart will keep drifting to Japan, to the immense city of Tokyo where I looked out of my hotel room and saw nothing but roofs stretching to the horizon. It drifts also to the tidy sweetness of the neighborhood of my first school visit, to the cooks in their hole-in-the-wall-places where we stopped to
Lanie, my most recent character to waltz into the world, yearns to travel to Indonesia where her best friend is getting a chance to hold orangutan babies. Eventually, Lanie discovers the small animals and other joys of her own back yard. I just DID travel to Indonesia (still holding the memory of this tree in my mind: it
Home! Next up: Seattle and several interesting events including this one, organized by an energetic new Ethiopia Reads volunteer. Who: families – kids are welcome! Jane Kurtz, children’s author WACAP staff What: Book sale/signing Opportunity to meet with other parents and learn about the needs of Ethiopian children Why: To raise awareness and funds for
I love international schools! They are such places to explore… music friends from all continents possibilities the power of words. Often the classes are small. Always, the classes are full of kids who were born in lots of different places, all bringing their knowledge and ideas and traditions and family connections and passions into one little space.
Eeeee. This sun bear is Lady, and she’s getting a shot at life. I’m reeling with the joy of a repeat author visit to Pasir Ridge International School in Palikpapan, Indonesia, the place where kids and faculty inspired me to create Dakota, Lanie’s best friend who is getting to live out Lanie’s dream and work
In the past week, reading student work from the Vermont College MFA in children’s literature has taken me into the strangest places. A music-thumping pit. A shop with furry antlers dangling in a corner. A grubby gym with my teacher’s false teeth near my head. Into a family destroyed by a dictator. Into a family
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