About Us
Award-winning children’s book author Jane Kurtz and her sister Caroline – who learned to read as children growing up in Maji, Ethiopia, volunteer their time and artistic talents to create easy-to-read books inspired by stories, proverbs, and scenes from daily life in Ethiopia. An army of volunteers stepped forward to help with writing, illustration, translation, and design. Yoseph Ayalew, a literacy advocate and author, leads our Local Printing and Distribution in Addis.
Global researchers find children do better throughout school if they first learn to read in their heart languages. OHBD works with native speakers to provide translations in local languages. The bilingual books give beginning readers bright and engaging stories so they can practice their reading skills. Our goal is 200 unique titles to help increase the literary rate in Ethiopia. The books are available globally on Amazon sites – follow our author page here to hear about new books or languages published. Proceeds from book sales support producing and distributing more OHBD Ready Set Go books in Ethiopia.
Here are some of the reactions we have gotten to these books.
Our books are carried by Seattle Public Libraries, Denver Public Libraries as well as libraries in Colorado, California, Washington, D.C., and Minnesota. If you’d like to see Ready Set Go books in your school or library, please contact us for more information and preferred pricing. We know kids in the US will enjoy our books and each one sold funds multiple books printed and distributed in Ethiopia.
A number of our books are sponsored by individuals and organizations. Sponsors subsidize cost of design and publishing, choose the stories, may help create the art, and direct where they would like books to be first distributed. Sponsors are recognized in the back matter of each book and on our website. We are grateful for all our amazing supporters that take actions to make our bold vision a reality.
