Meet the Pack-n-Go Girls!
Our Pack-n-Go Girls come from all over the United States and all over the world!
Find out more about your favorite Pack-n-Go Girl.
The Austria Adventures Pack-n-Go Girls
Brooke Mason lives with her mom and dad and two brothers on their ranch near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Will and Dusty, Brooke’s brothers, are both older than she is. Most of the time they’re pretty cool to hang out with, but sometimes they tease her waaaaayyyyyy toooooooo MUCH! In a later book you’ll hear about the time Dusty “lost” a garter snake in Brooke’s bedroom. Oh yeah. He paid for that one!
Brooke has always loved horses. When she was really, really little (before she knew any better!), her grandma asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Brooke said, “A horse.” At the time, she couldn’t understand why everyone laughed at her. After all, who wouldn’t want to be a horse? Her mom explained to her that colts grew up to be horses, and little girls grew up to be big girls. So Brooke had to settle for the next best thing and have a horse for a pet. Well, that and gazillion stuffed horses, books about horses, a bedspread with horses on it, and running horses stenciled her bedroom wall. Last year, she got a sweatshirt with a horse on it. It’s her favorite, favorite, FAVORITE sweatshirt. If you think Brooke named her horse Snowflake because he was born in the winter, you’d be wrong. She picked the name because when Snowflake was born, he was black as a winter midnight on the ranch except for a white patch on his forehead. It made Brooke think of the first snowflakes that fall on the dark ground.
Eva Mueller is lighter than air when she dances. She has studied ballet for four years, and she loves it more than double dark chocolate. Speaking of chocolate, a few years ago, Eva’s mom and dad started a small chocolate company. Brooke thinks the only thing better than to live on a ranch must be to own your very own chocolate factory! Eva isn’t so sure. Even though her mom and dad live in the castle with Eva and her grandfather, they’re gone too much of the time. They have to travel a lot for the business. It seems like they’re always gone. They go to Brazil to buy the fresh cocoa seeds. They go to New York and Paris to sell the chocolates to stores. It seems very exciting, but Eva misses her mom and dad.
Eva lives at Schloss Mueller. When most people think of an Austrian castle, or schloss, they picture a giant fortress on top of a mountain. Not every castle is a big fortress, though. Some castles, like Schloss Mueller, are really more like a huge house. They are called manor houses. To tell you the truth, at first Brooke was a tiny bit disappointed Schloss Mueller wasn’t as big as a fortress. But it was so beautiful, she quickly changed her mind. After all, it was still 10 times as big as her own house! Eva’s family has lived in Schloss Mueller for 18 generations. That’s over 400 years! Eva’s Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great Grandfather built the first part of Schloss Mueller. Can you imagine? Others added on to it at different times. There’s always been a Mueller living there. All the rooms have high ceilings and windows that almost touch the floor and the ceiling. Eva told Brooke that her grandfather can remember when they finally got indoor plumbing. Before that, they either had to go outside to go to the bathroom. Or they used a chamber pot by their beds. Ugh! Brooke is very, very happy they fixed that part of the castle!
The Mexico Adventures Pack-n-Go Girls
Izzy Bennett has lived all her life on a boat. Her friends in Seattle think it’s cool and kind of crazy since they all live in regular houses. Izzy’s mom and dad bought the boat before Izzy was born. They had dreamed of sailing the world for years.  Finally, last year, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett took the plunge, left their jobs for a year, and the family left for Mexico. When the year is over, they’ll go back to Seattle and to their jobs where Mr. Bennett is an architect and Mrs. Bennett is a nurse. For this year off, Izzy is being homeschooled. She likes that she can work at her own pace and even get ahead a bit.
Most of the time, Izzy loves the sailing life. She’s seen all kinds of cool things—whales, dolphins, sea turtles, and (her favorite) luminescence, which is stuff in the water that glows in the dark. The first time she saw it she thought it was fairy pixie dust—even though she knew there was no such thing as a fairy. She also loves to sail when the winds are right and the seas are smooth. It’s great to spend this year exploring another country and becoming a better sailor. She’s glad to have Katie Kitty along for the ride. If she’s completely honest, though, she misses her friends. She knows when she gets back to Washington the year away will be one she’ll never forget.
Patti Cruz Delgado loves helping her mom and dad in their restaurant and hotel. It’s pretty cool that her grandfather built the hotel and it has stayed in the family. The whole family is proud of that history.
One of the things that Patti enjoys about working in the restaurant is that she can practice her English. She’s really happy to be able to speak it so well. It’s one of the reasons she and Izzy can have so much fun together. They both practice the other one’s language. Another thing she loves about the restaurant is that she is learning to cook. Her mom says she’s already pretty amazing for her age. But Patti just says she’s learned from the best. Her mom lets her mess around in the kitchen. Just this year Patti and her mom came up with a new enchilada recipe that people all over town rave about. She’s going to share the recipe in a future book, so watch for it!
The Thailand Adventures Pack-n-Go Girls
Jess Johnson loves playing soccer almost as much as mysterious adventures in faraway places. She thinks its cool that her parents travel all over the world to help support schools. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson work as school teachers during the school year. On school breaks and summers, they volunteer to help build and support schools in other countries. So Jess has traveled to Nicaragua, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Haiti. Since her parents like to travel so much, she was also lucky enough to visit Mexico, Canada, and Greece on vacation. But Thailand is the farthest she has ever been.
When she is at home, Jess plays on her soccer team, the Boston Lightening. She plays with girls from different schools. Even though they don’t see each other at school, they are fast friends on the field. They like to go watch the high school girls play soccer and try to practice their moves. But most of all they like to play hard in the games and eat the after-game snacks! At school, Jess hangs out with her friends Emma and Abby. Her favorite subject is writing. But she also loves to sing. So she thinks maybe someday she will do both and be a song writer! She can’t wait to write a song about her adventures in Thailand!
Nong May Wattana likes to sing, dance, and make new friends. She loves showing new friends around her special city of Chiang Mai. There is so much to explore. Nong May grew up right outside of Chiang Mai in the Mae Sa Valley on an orchid farm. The orchid farm has been in her family since her grandfather was little. She loves the beautiful flowers that the farm grows. She knows they spread happiness to all the places around the world that they sell them to. Her brother, Pee Aran works at the Elephant Rescue Center nearby. On a lazy day, it’s always fun to stop by and help with the elephants. Sometimes that means feeding them, but other times that means cleaning up after them. Yuck!
At school, Nong May hangs out with her friends, Isra and Kanya. Her favorite subject is English. It is “jeng” – awesome – to learn and speak both Thai and English. She loves to talk to the people from different countries that come to help help her mom support the village schools. Many visitors do not speak Thai, and she doesn’t know languages like German or French yet.  But most people know some English. So she can usually ask the visitors all about where they live. She loves learning about new places. That’s why she loves hanging out with Jess!
The Brazil Adventures Pack-n-Go Girls
Sofia Diaz loves to swim and play in the warm waters of Miami, Florida. Some days, though, she’s too busy with school and gymnastics to get to the beach. But you can catch her practicing cartwheels and front walkovers anywhere there’s space, like the park, the beach, the sidewalk, or even the airport. (Well, not so much the airport after her dad gave her The Look. Sigh.) Sofia’s dad, Tony, works for a motorcycle company that has a manufacturing facility in Manuas, Brazil. So he travels there for business often. Her mom, Maria, works for a company doing some sort of technical stuff on a computer. Sofia isn’t really sure what she does exactly. But she travels to Latin America and South America a lot too. Her older brother, Aldo (15), got to go to Chile with her mom last year. Now it’s her turn to travel. Her younger brother, Luis (7) is waiting (not patiently) for his turn.
At home, Sofia spends a lot of time with her gymnastics team, The Xtreme Flippers. Her favorite event is the beam. But she also likes the floor event–she can do more than just cartwheels on the mats! She loves to hear people say “wow!” when she does her flips at the gymnastics meets. At school, Sofia hangs out with her friends Meredith and Klaire. Her favorite subject is art. She loves to paint and draw pictures of the beach. She says she is a “sunset girl” because she especially likes to draw pictures of  all the colors of the sunset. She can’t wait to draw pictures of the colors in the Amazon rainforest.
Júlia Santos lives in Manaus, Brazil. It’s the capital city of the state of Amazonas, which is in the northern part of Brazil. A big time animal lover, she has her heart set on being a ranger when she grows up. Since she lives in a city right smack in the Amazon, she uses every opportunity to learn more about the jungle on each adventure she takes. Her favorite animals are poison dart frogs, howler monkeys, and  jaguars (although she wouldn’t really want to run into one in person). But she is NOT a fan of the snakes. Júlia has five brothers and sisters: Paulo (15), Vitoria (14), Amanda (11), Mariana (6), and Bruno(3). Her Dad, Paulo, works for the same motorcycle company as Sofia’s dad. Her mom, Morena, takes care of the family. She hosts lots of  big get togethers where they dance and sing and eat lots of food. Basically, her mom makes up lots of reasons to have parties with friends and family. And Júlia is just fine with that!
At school, JĂşlia likes to hang out with her cousins Gabriella and Felipe and her friends Camila, Yasmine, Clara, and LĂvia. Her favorite subject is social studies. She likes to learn more about the Amazon region, the rest of Brazil, and other countries. She can’t wait for a chance to visit Sofia in the United States. And when she’s older and has a vacation from her ranger job, she wants to travel all over the world and meet new people. If she doesn’t get the ranger job, her back-up option is to work for the Brazilian embassy in another country. The world is full of opportunity when you are JĂşlia Santos!
The Australia Adventures Pack-n-Go Girls
Wendy Lee thinks it’s pretty cool that she has two names, one for the American part of her, and one for the Chinese part of her. Wendy Lee is her American name. Lee Wen Chi is her Chinese name. In China, the family name comes first. It’s kind of confusing because lots of people think her first name is Lee. She doesn’t mind, though, because she loves having a connection to her Chinese roots and still being an all-American girl.
Wendy’s grandparents, her lao lao and lao ye, live just a few blocks away from her in San Francisco. They make sure she knows as much as she can about China. They make traditional Chinese food. Wendy could eat her lao ye’s dim sum every meal for a year and never get tired of it. Her grandparents also take her to Chinese class on Saturday mornings. She’s been going since she was just a toddler, so she’s actually pretty good at Chinese. It helps that her grandparents speak Chinese with her most of the time. The part she loves most is writing the characters. Each one is like a little piece of art.
Wendy and her mom are spending the next six months in Australia. Her mom works for a large software company and is responsible for a big project. It’s kind of scary to be away from home and her friends for so long. Thank goodness she met Chloe the very first day! Wendy can’t wait to see more kangaroos and maybe even some wild camels. But she hopes most of all that she gets to share some more spectacular Australian sunsets with her new friend.
Chloe Taylor loves living in the outback in Australia. She rides along with her dad in the ute whenever she can. It’s pretty cool to live in the middle of so much nature that other people never get to see. She’s seen so many kangaroos that she doesn’t even get excited about them—unless they almost jump in front of their ute. Someday, she hopes to take over the sheep station from her mom and dad. It won’t be easy, but she can’t imagine living anywhere else.
Chloe’s excited—and pretty nervous—about moving to Port Augusta. They’re moving so that she and Jacko, her brother, can go to school with other kids. As much as she loves the family sheep station and their way of life, it can get a little lonely sometimes. And, well, Jacko can drive her a little crazy since he talks so much all the time. She’s a little worried, though, about what it will be like to have to sit in a classroom all day since she’s only done school of the air up until now.
In the meantime, she loves sharing her corner of the outback with her new friend, Wendy.