Gold Best Book Award
Animal Teachers by Janet Kloeckner Halfmann, formerly of rural St. Johns, has won a national 2014 Gold Best Book Award.
The award, given by Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, is based on a book’s quality, age-appropriateness, and value to its intended audience. The book was reviewed by educators, parents, and kids.
The Toy Portfolio had this to say: “How do animals learn? They don’t go to school or have books. In a charming and informative book, they learn from their teachers, their mothers, fathers and sometimes the herd they live with in the great outdoor classroom of the world. Each new idea is followed with interactive questions that give children a chance to make the connections between their world and how they learn.”
The publisher of Animal Teachers is Blue Apple Books. The illustrator is Katy Hudson of London, England.
Animal Teachers is Halfmann’s 40th book. Other recent titles include A Rainbow of Birds, Eggs 1, 2, 3, Star of the Sea, Good Night, Little Sea Otter, Home in the Cave, and Seven Miles to Freedom.
Before becoming a children’s author, Halfmann was a newspaper reporter, managing editor of a children magazine, and a creator of color and activity books for Golden Books. She grew up on a farm in the St. Johns/Fowler area and now lives in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Her signed books are available at the Art Gallery in downtown St. Johns. Signed copies of her newest book will be available there in early October. Her books also are available at bookstores and online.
You can find out more about Halfmann’s books here: http://www.janethalfmann.com.