Hello! Today's blog post is an interview with the wonderful Jane Kurtz! Jane is the Author of the books "Lanie", "Lanie's Real Adventures" and one of the books in American Girl's "Girls of Many Lands" line. It was so much fun to talk to and interview this amazing author!
EDS: Which Girl of The Year book did you have the most fun writing?
Jane Kurtz: I've only written two books for the same girl of the year: Lanie. I alsowrote a book for American Girl's "Girl of Many Lands" series--a book setin Ethiopia where I spent most of my childhood. Both of those projectswere terrific!
EDS: How do you come up with your storylines for your books?
Jane Kurtz: In both cases, some things were already in place. For SABA, American Girlwanted a protagonist who was twelve-years-old and (of course) active andtrying to figure out something for her life against the backdrop of aninteresting historical period someplace in Africa. With Lanie, they hadalready figured out that they wanted a girl who loved the earth. Ithought about where my love of the earth comes from and realized it'sconnected to all the time I spent outside when I was a girl, so Isuggested that Lanie be an outside girl who loved to garden and dreamed ofcamping and also saving animals the way Jane Goodall does. I had to thinkabout what would block her from getting outside. What might she discoverat the end that she could do for animals right in her own back yard?Thinking of what animals are in a city (Boston in Lanie's case) led me todo research about citizen science with birds and bees and butterflies.
EDS: What do you love most about working for American Girl?
Jane Kurtz: Probably most of all I loved meeting all the girls who came to my signingsand asking them what they like about their back yard. Kids that age aresuch a hoot!
EDS: How long does it take to write a series of books for AG?
Jane Kurtz: I was on a pretty tight schedule both times. I think it took about eightmonths.
Jane Kurtz: I was on a pretty tight schedule both times. I think it took about eightmonths.
EDS: Which doll that you've written about do you feel most connected to?
Jane Kurtz: The fun connection with Lanie is that a few years after I wrote her books,I moved to Portland, Oregon into a house that had a very neglected yard.Through what I learned in researching Lanie's story, I've created abackyard habitat. So I think about Lanie almost every day. I have even BECOME Lanie in some ways.
Thank you so much for the interview, Jane!
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