WESTMINSTER WEST — Jessie Haas has written more than 36 books. This year, her hard work paid off in a big way.
The Westminster West resident was selected by the American Girl Company to write the story for their biggest product of the year: the Girl of the Year.
Each year, American Girl, a subsidiary of toy-maker Mattel, selects an author to write about a character “with a story about finding success in the face of challenges today.”
The company then produces a number of products that focus on the character, such as books that tell the character's story, an 18-inch doll depicting the character, and accessories for the doll.
For 2013, the products center around Saige Copeland, a courageous fourth-grader who struggles as she grows apart from her best friend and plans a fundraiser for after-school art classes with the help of her grandmother's horse, Picasso.
Haas, who grew up on a farm with horses and enjoys training them, focuses on the animals in many of her children's books.
“I think I was born loving them,” she said. “I love horse stories. That was what I loved since I began reading. Horses are kind of my profession, in a roundabout sort of way.”
Haas is best known for writing horse-centric books for children and young adults. Her most recent book, “Bramble and Maggie,” is a Junior Library Guild selection. Another book, “Horse Crazy! 1,001 Fun Facts, Craft Projects, Games, Activities and Know-How For Horse-Loving Kids,” won the American Horse Publications award in the Equine-related Books category in 2009.
This isn't her first experience writing a book for a toymaker: In 2011, Breyer, the world's largest manufacturer of model horses, published “Chico's Challenge,” Haas' story on quarter horses, for a book and model set.
That passion for horse stories is what caught the attention of American Girl.
“I got an email from the editor in July 2012,” Haas said. “They had read some of my earlier books. They wanted to do a theme around horses and knew that I had written a lot of horse books.”
Once American Girl chose Haas to write two books featuring Saige, a collaborative writing process began.
“When I normally write, I'm sitting there generating all by myself,” she said. “With this, it was much more of a team effort. It was actually a lot of fun.”
Haas said she worked with a number of representatives from American Girl. “We went back and forth on the story a lot, but it was more of a free and creative process than I had thought it might be.”
Throughout the writing process, representatives continued to work with Haas to make the book inspiring and marketable to girls around 9 years old.
“They have a word target and a page target that they need to hit,” she said. “There were times when they had to say that 'we like that, but it has to go.' We had to simplify the story a lot. On the other side of it, they wanted to be sure that I pushed the character to really take action. That's part of their ethics: they believe in girls as doers and shapers of their lives. They wanted to see her really step up.”
Haas went on to describe why art is a focus in Saige's story.
“That was part of what was interesting about American Girl's process. They apparently do a lot of surveys of girls and their mothers. They want to know what they are concerned about.”
Arts education, and keeping art in the schools, was a top concern, according to the company's surveys.
With Saige's release, the company has produced a number of products to go along with the book: a Saige doll, various doll outfits, Picasso (Saige's grandmother's horse), Saige's dog, and even a hot air balloon (which is featured in the second book).
Moreover, American Girl is working with Universal Studios to produce a movie based on the books, set to be released to DVD this year.
Although being picked to do the American Girls books was a nice honor, Haas is still working on her other projects. Another installment of the Bramble and Maggie series is due out this year. And although she's written in other genres and for other age groups, children's books are still her greatest love.
“I like the deep optimism that's really an essential part of writing for young people,” she said. “It's not the kind of field where you write that everything's crappy. Things turn, people gain strength and wisdom, they come of age in sometimes very difficult circumstances. It's deeply interesting, and it resonates with who I am.”