About Us

The shiniest books for children make it all look easy. Anyone who has tried to create a successful children’s book knows though, that a lot of deep-water sloshes around that shiny little iceberg tip.

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.

The Open Hearts Big Dreams team travels in Ethiopia visiting collaborating partners and projects.

Play Video

Here are some of the reactions we have gotten to these books.

“I love reading all of these books because they have interesting and catchy stories and I like retelling the stories to my friends, siblings and in the classroom.”

Nardos, 12 years old

Anteneh points to We Can Stop the Lion and calls it his favorite, “because the story has a very strong message and it made me admire the strengths of the spiders.”

Anteneh, 11 years old

Rediet especially likes the book Fire. “It’s informative,” she says. “These books tell us about things that are around us that we don't pay attention to every day.”

Rediet, 7 years old

Our books are carried by libraries and schools around the globe. 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 worldwide will enjoy our books and each one sold helps fund books printed and distributed in Ethiopia.

A number of our books, book printing and reading rooms are sponsored by individuals and organizations. Sponsors subsidize cost of design and publishing, printing in Ethiopia or setting up local reading rooms. Sponsors are recognized in a variety of ways depending on type including on our website. We are grateful for all our amazing supporters that take actions to make our bold vision a reality.