River Friendly River Wild, by Jane Kurtz

Author Jane Kurtz Donates Book, River Friendly River Wild

Award winning children's author, Jane Kurtz, donates book, River Friendly River Wild, proceeds of sales go to the Ethiopian Books for Children and Education Foundation.

(PRWEB) September 6, 2005 -- In April of 1997--on her birthday--award-winning children’s book author Jane Kurtz had to evacuate her house in Grand Forks, North Dakota, because water from the Red River was spilling over nearby dikes in what would turn into a “five hundred year flood,” something that had never before happened.
She and her family took one small suitcase each, assuming they would be back within days. Instead, they didn’t get to see their house for six weeks. “In some ways,” she says, “we were among the lucky ones. The water in our house hadn’t covered the second floor. And neighbors had helped us move some things from the garden basement level before we left.” She adds, though, that in those weeks spent in the muck and grime of cleanup, she almost wished her house, like those of her neighbors, had been destroyed. She learned about survivor guilt and endurance in the years it took Grand Forks to recover. She also learned about how a community can pull together and cling to stories, memories, and hope.
All of her feelings and experiences, she poured into a picture book that was published by Simon & Schuster in 2000, River Friendly River Wild.”“During my author visits around the country in the past few years,” Kurtz says, “teachers and librarians have told me they cried as they read River Friendly River Wild aloud to students. That’s what books do. They bridge the gaps in human experiences and help us understand a little of what another person has gone through.” From her own experiences, she knows that classrooms and libraries everywhere will be discussing the flooding in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana--and the flood of refugees who had to leave their cities and homes--during the fall. She hopes that her book will be part of those discussions.
Kurtz has donated copies of River Friendly River Wild to a project she’s now deeply involved with, EBCEF, (www.ethiopiareads.org) in the simplest of terms, EBCEF is attempting to put books into the hands of Ethiopian children. Buying one of these copies of River Friendly River Wild, available at www.silverchicks.com, she says, will do “double duty. It will provide operating money for the Ethiopian book project and also give teachers, parents, grandparents, or librarians a way to help children know there’s always hope.”
Since Jane grew up as a reader and a writer in the country of Ethiopia, she knows how important books can be for planting vision and hope.
For more information about EBCEF, please visit their website www.ethiopiareads.org. EBCEF is a 501 c (3) non-profit organization established for the purpose of promoting children's book publishing, reading, literacy and the development of education in Ethiopia. The funds for EBCEF come from private donations, from grants and fund raising activities. Your contributions are tax-deductible as allowed by law. For more information about Jane Kurtz, please visit www.janekurtz.com.
For more information about EBCEF and it's projects or SilverChicks.com, please contact Catie Dupont at ethiopaireads@aol.com.