Council for Wisconsin Writers

Supporting Wisconsin writers from 1964 to 2022

Oppenheim Toy Portfolio

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The Picture-Book Meister Wins Again

Janet Halfmann, one of Wisconsin’s most prolific picture-book authors–if not the most–has won yet another award. Her book Animal Teachers had already won a Gold Best Book Award from the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, but now it has also received a PLATINUM Best Book Award in the Preschool and Early School Years categories.

janet blueanimal teachers

Here’s what the organization’s write-up said:

Animal Teachers
(By Janet Halfmann/ illus Katy Hudsom, Blue Apple $17.99 Score:)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.

Age: Preschool, Early School Years. Award Year: 2014.

Janet’s books have also won a Council for Wisconsin Writers Tofte-Wright Children’s Literature award and honorable mention.

For more information about CWW, its annual contests and awards, please go to http://www.wiswriters.org/index.htm.

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Wisconsin's Writers for Children Share Good News

A double shout out to Janet Halfmann whose Animal Teachers has received the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio’s 2014 Best Books Gold Seal. Here’s a link to the announcement:
http://www.toyportfolio.com/SingleProduct.php?ProductID=8201. Here’s what the Toy Portfolio had this to say about Animal Teachers: “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.”

Janet says her Eggs 1, 2, 3  won the same award a couple years ago.

Janet also reports that Animal Teachers appears in the latest newsletter of the Environmental Education Association of Illinois with this mention: “This book embodies the importance of sound science with the work that we do as interpreters/educators. The possibilities for having students bark like prairie dog pups and drink like elephant Moms are endless.”

Jessica Salyer‘s YA contemporary romance novel, Secret Catch, which she wrote with Cassie Mae is debuting October 7. To celebrate, she’s having a book launch party at Moe’s Irish Pub in Wauwatosa at 6 pm on October 17 and hopes friends, colleagues and other interested folks will join her there.

Valerie Biel (Johnson) says the official release of her YA novel Circle of Nine–Beltany is October 24, coincidentally the first day of the WISCBWI Fall Conference. Here’s the book’s back cover blurb:  “Since I was a little girl I’ve been labeled a freak in my small town. There’s no blending in when your mom practices an ancient pagan religion and everyone believes she’s a witch. On my 15th birthday my secret wish is the same as always – to just be normal. But that’s not what I get. Not even close.” – Brigit Quinn

More info is at Valerie’s website at www.ValerieBiel.com, including book-giveaway contests from now until the 24th via her blog, Facebook page, and Twitter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wisconsin Writers Write On!

There’s so much going on with Wisconsin writers and on  the Wisconsin writing scene, it’s hard to keep up with it all.

First, Ann Angel, author of more than half-a-dozen books, most notably the Janis Joplin biography, Rise Up Singing, reports:

There are a few events that might be of interest to southeastern Wisconsin writers.
  On Tuesday, October 7, 6:30 pm, Mary-Liz Shaw, food and book blogger, will be speaking at Mount Mary University about the role of food as ritual and tradition in literature. That’s free and open to the public.
  On Wednesday, October 8 at 7 pm, I’ll be at the New Berlin Public Library to talk about loving Janis Joplin, writing her biography, and consulting on the Janis Joplin Forever stamp. This is also free.
  On Saturday, November 15, Mount Mary University and RedOak Writers will co-sponsor a daylong Publishing Institute. The keynote speaker is novelist Brett Anthony Johnston who is also the director of creative writing at Harvard University. Participants can work with writers, agents and an editor throughout the day. There is a fee for this event. Critiques are available for an extra fee. You can register by going to this link – http://www.mtmary.edu/news-events/events/publishing-institute.html
Janet Halfmann announced today that one of her most recent books, Animal Teachers  — with Janet’s constant stream of new titles, I’ve lost track of whether this is her absolute most recent — has won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio’s national 2014 Gold Best Book Award, based on a book’s quality, age-appropriateness, and value to its intended audience. The book was reviewed by educators, parents, and kids.
And here’s a Wisconsin Historical Society Press news release about what appears to be a most unusual and fascinating memoir:
Memoir Shares Menominee Indian’s Coming of Age Story 

Ninety-year-old Raymond Kaquatosh was born in 1924 on Wisconsin’s Menominee Reservation. In his Wisconsin Historical Society Press memoir Little Hawk and the Lone Wolf, Kaquatosh tells the stories of his reservation boyhood, Indian boarding school days, and military service and shares how the lessons he learned from a wolf he had befriended as a boy guided him along the way.

Kaquatosh, also known as “Little Hawk,” was the son of a medicine woman. He spent a Depression-era boyhood immersed in the beauty of the natural world and the traditions of his tribe and family. When he was eight, Kaquatosh’s father died, and the tough times that followed forced “Little Hawk” to an Indian boarding school in Keshena. There he experienced isolation and despair, but also comfort and kindness. Upon his return home, Kaquatosh remained a lonely boy in a full house until he met and befriended a timber wolf. The unusual bond they formed would last through both their lifetimes. As Ray grew into a young man, he left the reservation more frequently. Yet whenever he returned – from school and work, from service in the Marines, and finally from postwar Wausau with his future wife – the wolf waited.

This rare first-person narrative of a Menominee Indian’s coming of age, shares a story that is wise and irreverent, often funny, and in the end, deeply moving.

Kaqautosh’s memories are framed with a foreword by Dr. Verna Fowler, president of the College of Menominee Nation, who writes that the memoir is, “must reading for all of us to aid our understanding of other cultures, particularly young American Indians growing up on reservations because it connects them with their elders.”

Midwest Connections PickThis book has also been selected by the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association as a Midwest Connections Pick for the month of November.
An e-book edition of “Little Hawk and the Lone Wolf” is also available.

Media: For a review copy or for more information, please contact Kristin Gilpatrick, Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 816 State St., Madison, WI 53706; 608-264-6465; email: kristin.gilpatrick@wisconsinhistory.org.

The Wisconsin Historical Society Press, publishing the best of

Wisconsin history and culture since 1855

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About the Author:
Raymond C. Kaquatosh was born in 1924 in Neopit, Wis. He spent his early years on the Menominee Indian Reservation and at the Menominee Boarding School at Keshena. Ray served in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II and later attended high schools in Keshena and Wausau, Milwaukee Area Technical College, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University of Wisconsin Law School. In August 1947, he became one of the first Menominee Indians to earn a pilot’s certificate.

Upcoming Book Events:

Saturday, October 4, 2014 – Book Talk & Signing
Time: 10:30 am

Location: Patterson Memorial Public Library, Wild Rose. Menominee Indian Raymond Kaquatosh, the 90-year-old author of the new Wisconsin Historical Society Press memoir Little Hawk and the Lone Wolf, will share stories of his reservation boyhood, Indian boarding school and military experiences, as well as the life lessons he learned from a lone wolf he befriended as a boy. A book signing will follow.

Thursday, October 23, 2014 – Book Launch Event

Time: 11 a.m.

Location: College of Menominee Nation, Keshena, Wis. College President Dr. Verna Fowler will lead a discussion with Menominee Elder Raymond Kaquatosh, the 90-year-old author of the Wisconsin Historical Society Press memoir Little Hawk and the Lone Wolf. Through the discussion, Kaquatosh will share stories of his reservation boyhood, Indian boarding school, and military experiences, as well as the life lessons he learned from a lone wolf he befriended as a boy. A book signing will follow.

Saturday, November 1, 2014 – Little Hawk: A Conversation

Time: 10 a.m.

Location: Wisconsin Veterans Museum, on the Capitol Square, Madison, Wis. Join a unique discussion between Wisconsin Public Radio host Judith Siers-Poisson, from The Larry Meiller Show, and Menominee Indian Raymond Kaquatosh, the 90-year-old author of a new Wisconsin Historical Society Press memoir Little Hawk and the Lone Wolf. Through the live interview format of the event, Ray will share stories from Kaquatosh’s reservation boyhood, Indian boarding school days, and war experiences in the U.S. Marine Corps. The author will also discuss the life lessons he learned from a lone wolf he befriended as a boy. A book signing will follow at the museum’s gift shop. This event is co-hosted by the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and Wisconsin Public Radio.

To Order:

For retail and wholesale orders: Contact the Chicago Distribution Center at 800-621-2736 Fax: 800-621-8476 Email: custserv@press.uchicago.edu
For individual orders: Order by phone toll free at 888-999-1669, shop online atwww.wisconsinhistory.org/shop, or shop in person at the Wisconsin Historical Museum Shop, 30 N. Carroll St., Madison WI 53703

Little Hawk and the Lone Wolf: A Memoir

By Raymond C. Kaquatosh

Hardcover: $22.95

200 pages, 5 1/2 x 8

ISBN: 978-0-87020-650-4

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Wisconsin Children's Book Creators Enjoy Successes

Janet Halfmann scores again!

This South Milwaukee children’s book author’s latest, Eggs 1, 2, 3: Who Will the Babies Be? is still smoking, it’s so hot off the press and here it is winning awards. The first of what I’m guess will be many is the Gold Best Book Award from the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio. To read more about it, go here: http://www.toyportfolio.com/SingleProduct.php?ProductID=7043

Eggs 1, 2, 3: Who Will the Babies Be? follows closely on the heels of Star of the Sea: A Day in the Life of a Starfish, which was the winning entry in the Council for Wisconsin Writers annual competition in the children’s category. Janet will receive that award at the CCW Annual Awards Luncheon, on May 12 at the Wisconsin Club in Milwaukee. For luncheon details, a list of the winners and luncheon reservations, go to www.wiswriters.org.

Other recent and relatively recent children’s book releases include:

  • Baby Bear Eats the Night illustrated by Bonnie Leick
  • Ten Luck Leprechauns written by Kathryn Heiling and Deborah Hembrook
  • Storytime Stickers: Whales illustrated by Carol Schwartz
  • My Extra Best Friend written by Julie Bowe
  • Getting Ready to Drive: A How-to Guide written by Eva Apelqvist
  • Jingo Fever written by Stephanie Golightly Lowden
  • Mercy Lily written by Lisa Albert
  • Bluefish written by Pat Schmatz

And, as mentioned in a previous post, Peep’s Spring Surprise an iTunes App written and illustrated by Jamie Stevens.