I’m Jen Robinson, and I blog at Jen Robinson’s Book Page. My blog focuses on promoting a love of books to children and a continued appreciation of children’s books by adults. I’ve had a life-long interest in reading and recommending children’s books, and I wanted to do something constructive with that passion. This year, I’m the middle grade and young …
REVIEW: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie
Over at ReadingYA: Readers’ Rants, my co-blogger TadMack and I write about young adult books that have caught our eye–whether we feel like a formal critique or an informal discussion. It’s the sister site of Finding Wonderland, our writing and literary news blog, and we started both blogs to share our observations and discoveries with our writing group and anyone …
REVIEW: Miss Spitfire by Sarah Miller
I love giving books to customers that transcend their age categories. There are books in the young adult section that I give to adults just as often as I give to teens, and vice-versa. There are stories hidden in a certain genre that are actually a combination of genres and could easily be placed in two or three other sections. …
Introducing your favorite books
Back, by popular demand — book reviews by our volunteers. Cybils is the place to discover great books and great bloggers, and we’re rounding up a sample of both starting today. As the contest progresses, you can check out which books our panelists are reading and what they think. For now, our organizers have chimed in with their takes on …
Artists and bloggers unite to fight cancer
As some of you know, I lost my mother to breast cancer last summer. I’m still too downhearted to participate in Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and there’s only so much pink I can force myself to wear when I still have the blues. But I’m peeping out of my shell for writer and illustrator Grace Lin, who recently lost her …
Cybils blogger guest reviews at ForeWord
Our own Eisha Prather is guest blogging this month for ForeWord, which features reviews of "good books independently published." For her first post, she confesses to a fascination with mental illness (we’re not drawing any conclusions, really) and reviews several YA titles with clinically depressed characters. Several of these books have already been nominated for the Cybils: Someday This Pain …
Who Put the Kid in Kid-friendly?
When Anne and I led a panel session on the Cybils at the 1st Annual Kidslitosphere Conference this weekend in Chicago, one theme in particular kept popping up during discussions: How do we decide if a book is child-friendly or not? This is an important question for the ninety panelists and judges evaluating the hundreds of children’s and YA books …
Fantasy and SF so far
Nominations are still streaming in, of course, but we thought you’d like to see the list so far. Sheila, our F/SF coordinator extraordinaire, has put up a list (with links to both Amazon and your local bookstore) on her blog, Wands and Worlds. Take a look, than come back and nominate something too. For other categories, click for the index.
Poll: School, Work, or Play?
We’ll be conducting reader polls here to see who’s reading what. Leave your answers in the comments! Do you read mostly for fun, or is the majority of what you read assigned by school or related to work? Are you reading for leisure or to educate yourself – or a bit of both? — Little Willow
The Cybils Press Release
Several people have requested our official press release. Feel free to borrow, copy or steal: BOOK BLOGGERS KICK OFF KIDLIT AWARDS’ SECOND YEAR CHICAGO – Will Harry Potter triumph among critical bloggers? Will novels banned in some school districts find favor online? With 90 volunteers poised to sift through hundreds of new books, the second annual Children’s and Young Adult …