Lanie is a fourth grader with "outside genes" who loves science and nature.  She dreams of following in the footsteps of Jane Goodall and doing something important to save the animals of the world--just like her best friend who is working on an orangutan project in Indonesia.  But Lanie is stuck in a family with "inside genes" in urban Cambridge.  Like the many young people who raise money for Ethiopia Reads, she discovers the power of one person to make a difference in her own back yard.  More details at http://janekurtz.wordpress.com 

Lanie's two books accompany the popular American Girl Doll of the Year and were authored by Jane Kurtz, long-time board chair of Ethiopia Reads.