So Many Ways to Be: The Contrasts and Diversity of Ethiopia in Amharic and English

by Jane Kurtz, Ready Set Go Books, Beth Crow

Ethiopia has more than 80 different ethnic groups, each speaking its own language and with its own customs and traditions and ways of living. Some Ethiopians have always traveled from one region to another—merchants and soldiers and others—and have gotten the chance to experience different climates and terrain, from massive highlands to some of the lowest spots on Earth. In recent decades, more and more Ethiopians travel for tourism to see some of the variety of people and places in their beautiful country including Lake Tana, the Omo Valley, and national parks with some unique indigenous animals like the gelada baboon and Ethiopian wolf. “So Many Ways to Be”, written by talented Ready Set Go books author Jane Kurtz, provides a colorful display of the many different things to see and ways to be. Illustrations provided by the creative students and instructors from Clark College Economic and Community Development class in Vancouver, WA. Ready Set Go Books, an Open Hearts Big Dreams Project, is focused on increasing the literacy rate in Ethiopia through giving readers books with stories in their heart languages, full of colorful illustrations with Ethiopian settings and details. Profits from books sales will be used to create, print, and distribute more Ready Set Go Books to kids in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country. Ethiopia’s population is 44% children, ages 0-14 (43 million out of 97 million total). Only 5.5% of children attend pre-school or kindergarten, and the adult literacy rate is 49%. Our books are based on wise Ethiopian sayings that often rhyme in Amharic. If an adult says the first half, many children can chant the second half. Sometimes the meaning of these sayings is clear. Sometimes it has to be puzzled out and argued over. But sayings and idioms and proverbs help people express truths and beliefs in unusual ways. Open Hearts Big Dreams Fund (OHBD) is a 501(3)(c) not for profit organization that believes the chance to dream big dreams should not depend on where in the world you are born. Our focus is to support nonprofit organizations and their programs that provide literacy, K-12 education, and leadership as well as that support the parents and communities where the kids live, in Ethiopia.

34 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 16, 2020

About the author

Jane Kurtz was born in Portland, Oregon, but when she was two years old, her parents moved to Ethiopia. Jane grew up in Maji, a small town in the southwest corner of the country.
Since there were no televisions, radios, or movies, her memories are of climbing mountains, wading in rivers by the waterfalls, listening to stories, and making up her own stories, which she and her sisters acted out for days at a time.


That love of nature has recently inspired her to write books about loving the Earth--such as WHAT DO THEY DO WITH ALL THAT POO? and PLANET JUPITER.

Jane has published more than 40 books, fiction, nonfiction, picture books, novels for young readers, and ready-to-reads. Some are based on her childhood in Ethiopia. Some draw on her own children, such as ANNA WAS HERE, a novel for young readers that asks life's big questions about pain and disaster--and offers a few puny answers.

Since her childhood in Ethiopia, Jane has lived in Illinois, Colorado, North Dakota, Kansas and--now--back in Portland, Oregon.