Cybils

Cybils Awards Store Now Open!

We have a page for stickers and hi-res images. Phew! A ton of work went into this by several people, yet I still live in constant fear of screwing this up.

WE HAVE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE.

So, please, be patient. Stickers are, well, sticky.

Here's the link to our store.

First sticker (minus the red stuff):

Second sticker (ditto):

Also for sale are hi-res images. Free, web-friendly GIF images are coming soon.

Note -- we haven't ordered any yet. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery on stickers. Hi-res images available immediately.

Here's our store again. See you there.

Aww, You're Making Us Blush

Shout it from the rooftops: authors love the Cybils! We are so flattered and grateful at the nice things our finalists and winners have been saying on their blogs and websites, and we thought we'd link to a few of the latest posts here. Among the authors sharing the love are:

• YA Fiction winner Courtney Summers
• MG Fantasy and Sci-Fi winner Laini Taylor
• Non-Fiction/Information Picture Books winner Chris Barton
• Teen Fantasy and Sci-Fi winner Kristin Cashore
• Easy Readers winner Mo Willems
• Fiction Picture Books winner Liz Garton Scanlon
• Middle Grade Fiction winner Laurie Halse Anderson
• Plus we're on the front page of Poetry winner Joyce Sidman's website!

The Cybils administrators, organizers and volunteers thank you for all of your kind words--and for the other wonderful words you wrote that make this award possible.

--Sarah Stevenson, blog editor

The Cybils Are SLJ-Fabulous!

We couldn't be more flattered by Rocco Staino's fabulous article about the Cybils posted at School Library Journal this morning. He leads in by talking about our Short Chapter Books winner Bad to the Bone by Lucy Nolan, but he goes on to talk about all of our wonderful winning titles as well as giving props to tireless Cybils Admin Anne and Co-Founder-on-Hiatus Kelly H.

Check out the full article here: Nolan's "Bad to the Bone" Nabs Cybils' Best Early Chapter Book. Thanks, Rocco and SLJ!

--Sarah Stevenson, Blog Editor

The 2009 Cybils Winners

I'm wrapping my brain around the idea that this is our fourth annual awards. Wasn't that blogging fad supposed to be over by now? Shhh ... don't tell that to our panelists and judges. They spend a good chunk of their year tap-tapping away on their keyboards, keeping the kidlit world humming with their takes on what makes for a great read.

Maybe new technology will overtake the cozy corner of the Internet known as the kidlitosphere. Perhaps there'll soon be some other way to transmit our enthusiasm for children's and young adult literature. In the meantime, we're still here, still reading, still passionately defending our faves and getting the word out.

And with that, I'll let you scroll down to see our picks for this year's awards.

Cheers,
--Anne Levy, Cybils Admin.

REVIEW The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

Lori Calabrese is not only a Round II judge for the Fiction Picture Books category, she's an author in her own right--of Oh! The Possibilities and the forthcoming The Bug that Plagued the Entire Third Grade. On her blog, she posts about children's books, writing, literacy, and more from the perspective of an author, mother, and--of course--a reader.

One of Lori's reviews was of Cybils FPB finalist The Curious Garden, written and illustrated by Peter Brown, who also wrote Flight of the Dodo and Chowder. It's inspired by the true story of a community park created on the site of an out-of-use elevated freight train track in Manhattan. Lori said in her post:

This whimsical tale encourages young readers that a greener world is possible--one garden at a time. It sends a wonderful message that even though something might seem "useless", if it’s tended to and cared for, it can bring new life to an entire community.

Click here for the full review.

Cybils is Flashlight Worthy

Peter is a blogger over at Flashlight Worthy Book Recommendations, which runs lists of great books for kids and teens. For the next few days, he's reprinting our finalists list by list, which we really appreciate.

Here's the Graphic Novel finals. And here are YA titles. More to come. While you're there, check out some of his other lists. Like, maybe this one.

I love his motto:
Recommending books so good, they'll keep you up past your bedtime.

--Anne Levy, Cybils Admin.

REVIEW Adventures in Cartooning

I always feel a little weird tooting my own horn on the Cybils blog, but I had to share my review of two of our Cybils graphic novel finalists--little did I know, when I wrote about both of these in the same post, that they'd end up on the short list and I'd have to evaluate them as a Round II judge!

At the beginning of last summer, I reviewed two titles from First Second Books: Adventures in Cartooning: How to Turn Your Doodles into Comics by James Sturm (pictured at left) and Creepy Crawly Crime (Joey Fly, Private Eye) by Aaron Reynolds. Here's a quote from the review, describing Creepy Crawly Crime:

There's a lot here to entertain older readers as well as kids--the puns and turns of phrase are particularly rewarding if you have any familiarity at all with traditional detective fiction, and I can absolutely see this being a fun one for parents to read aloud to (or with) kids.

Read both reviews here.

The Inside Scoop on Nominees, Part III

We've got two more blurbs for you, our inquiringly-minded readers, giving you a sneak peek at what it was like for our Round I judges to narrow down such a fantastic (and, in some cases, fantastically huge) field of nominations. Today, check out the story being Fantasy and Science Fiction and Fiction Picture Books.

Sheila Ruth, Fantasy and Science Fiction: The popularity of fantasy and science fiction continues to grow; this year we had 98 eligible nominees in the elementary/middle level, and 134 in the teen level. For the first time, we had so many nominees that we had to create two SFF panels: one for the middle-grade books and one for the teen books.

REVIEW African Acrostics: A Word in Edgeways

Tricia Stohr-Hunt, Round I Poetry judge and blogger at The Miss Rumphius Effect, describes her site as "[t]he blog of a teacher educator discussing poetry, children's literature and issues related to teaching children and their future teachers." But it's so much more than that--including a regular home for Poetry Friday and the Poetry Stretch, an incredible agglomeration of booklists...you'll just have to go check it out.

Tricia reviewed one of our Poetry finalist titles, African Acrostics: A Word in Edgeways written by Avis Harley with photographs by Deborah Noyes. From the 18 creatively crafted acrostic poems to the gorgeous photography, it's sure to appeal to animal enthusiasts and poetry lovers alike. Says Tricia in her review:

The poems in this book are deftly created....The patterns that exist within them never get in the way of the poem itself, and finding them is a bit of a surprise.

Click here for the full review.

REVIEW I Can't Keep My Own Secrets

Alicia Blowers, a middle school librarian, is also known as the LibrariYAn on her blog, where she regularly reviews YA titles as well as participating in Nonfiction Monday. She's one of our Round I judges for Middle Grade and YA Non-Fiction this year.

Earlier on in the Cybils process, Alicia took a look at NFMG/YA finalist title I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure, edited by Smith Magazine. This book does for teens what Smith Magazine's earlier title, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure, did for adults: asked for six-word memoirs from teens 13 - 19 years old. In her review, Alicia says the book is "A wonderful concept, beautifully constructed and sure to be well received by many teens."

For a sneak peek at a few of the memoirs, check out the full review.