Author Jane Kurtz was born in Portland, Oregon on April 17th, but her family moved to Maji, Ethiopia when she was two. She grew up in the country with no television, radio, or movies. Instead, she and her siblings made up their own stories, acting them out, and reading. It's not surprise that she is a prolific author. Since her first book, Fire on the Mountain (Simon & Schuster, 1994), she has published at least one book each year, ranging over a wide variety of topics. Some of her books are set in her African home, books such as Water Hole Waiting and Only a Pigeon and Jakarta Missing. Another book, I'm Sorry, Almira Ann, grew out of her great-great-grandmother's stories of their sojourn on the Oregon Trail. While her family was living in Grand Forks, North Dakota, they experienced a flood that did great damage. In the poetry of River Friendly, River Wild, Jane conveys the emotions of that event from a child's viewpoint. More recent books have included Bicycle Madness, about that "dangerous character," suffragette Frances Willard. Today, Jane Kurtz resides in Kansas, but is a citizen of the world, often traveling to faraway places to talk about books and do research for her next tale.
