Biography
Heather Tekavec discovered while working as a preschool teacher that children’s books were a lot more fun than adult books. After falling in love with the works of Pat Hutchins, Keiko Kasza, Jez Alborough and many others, she couldn’t help but start writing some of her own. It’s probably not coincidence that the first two of her eleven published books, Storm Is Coming! and What’s That Awful Smell?, mirror two of her own childhood fears – thunder and yucky smells!#In addition to books, Heather enjoys writing short stories, articles and poems for children’s magazines, such as CRICKET, Chirp, Highlights and Totline, and has delved a few times into writing scripts and directing live theater.#Twenty-some years since it began, Heather still thinks children’s books are more fun than adult books. Wanted: Criminals of the Animal Kingdom is her twelfth published book.#Heather doesn’t teach preschool anymore but still loves meeting children during author visits to schools and libraries. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Cloverdale, British Columbia, sometimes writing, sometimes playing and always reading … children’s books!
Awards
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Arnold the Super-ish Hero
2023 - Delaware Diamonds Award, Diamond State Reading Association, Short-Listed
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Wanted! Criminals of the Animal Kingdom
2020 - Children`s Book Award, Science Writers and Communicators of Canada, Winner
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Different? Same!
2018 - A Baker's Dozen: The Best Children's Books for Family Literacy, Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Winner
2018 - CLEL Bell Picture Book Awards for Early Literacy, Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy, Commended
2017 - Best Books for Kids & Teens, starred selection, Canadian Children's Book Centre, Winner
2017 - First and Best List, Toronto Public Library, Winner
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Manners Are Not for Monkeys
2017 - Rainforest of Reading Readers' Choice Award, OneWorld Schoolhouse Foundation, Winner
2016 - Best Books for Kids and Teens, Canadian Children's Book Centre, Winner
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Stop, Thief!
2016 - Blue Spruce Award, Ontario Library Association, Commended
2015 - Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize, West Coast Book Prize Society, Commended
2014 - Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award, IBBY-Canada, Winner
Picture Books
Arnold the Super-ish Hero, 2021
Different? Same!, 2017
Manners Are Not for Monkeys, 2016
Stop, Thief!, 2014Non-fiction
Wanted! Criminals of the Animal Kingdom, 2020