Janet Beeler Shaw

Janet Beeler Shaw (born 30 September 1937) is an American writer of fiction for adults and children, best known as the author of the Kirsten and Kaya books in Pleasant Company's American Girl series.

Shaw was born in Springfield, Illinois. She earned an associate degree from Stephens College in 1957, a bachelor's degree from Goucher College in 1959 and a master's degree from Cleveland State University in 1975, and has worked as a freelance writer and a college lecturer. She began with poetry and short stories, and her first novel, Taking Leave (1987), was cited for outstanding literary achievement by the Wisconsin Library Association.

In the mid-1980s she began writing for the American Girl line, which Pleasant Rowland founded in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1986 with three historical characters: Kirsten Larson, Samantha Parkington and Molly McIntire. Shaw wrote the original Kirsten books, starting with Meet Kirsten: An American Girl, Kirsten's Lesson: A School Story and Kirsten's Surprise: A Christmas Story (all 1986), followed by Happy Birthday, Kirsten! (1987) and Kirsten Saves the Day and Changes for Kirsten (both 1988). Later Kirsten titles include Kirsten on the Trail (1999) and Kirsten Snowbound! (2001). In 2002 she wrote the five Kaya books about a Nez Perce girl, beginning with Meet Kaya: An American Girl. Mattel bought Pleasant Company in 1998.

For collectors. The 1986 Pleasant Company first printings of Meet Kirsten and Kirsten's Surprise belong to the first year of the American Girl series, and Kirsten was one of its three original characters, which gives these books a place in collections of the series as a whole.