Cybils

Marilyn Singer Q&A

It's National Poetry Month, and we've got a treat of a link for you to click today. Check out the Horn Book's interview with 2010 Cybils-winning author Marilyn Singer, in which she talks about her book Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse (the title that won the Cybil award for Poetry in 2010) as well as an upcoming companion book, Follow Follow: A Book of Reverso Poems. Congrats, Marilyn, and we look forward to reading your latest!

Keeping the Cybils Ball Rolling

We've already gotten a few enthusiastic e-mails and such suggesting nominations for next year, and we couldn't be happier that y'all are so proactive. BUT! Please remember that nominations officially open in October--we can't do anything about it at the moment. So please make a note of your favorites so you can tune in this fall and nominate them!

There are lots of ways to keep that Cybils momentum going, though--you can tweet or blog, you can make a Goodreads or Pinterest list...and I guess there's always good old pen-on-dead-tree (still my preferred mode of notetaking). Just remember you'll have to come back in October and submit them via our nominations form. For a refresher on the official process, click here.

--Sarah Stevenson, blog editor

Readers, Get Ready...

Don't forget to tune in tomorrow morning (or tonight, depending on how you look at it), February 14, at 12:01 a.m. PST for the announcement of this year's 2012 Cybil Award winners! We'll be announcing this past year's best of the best as selected by the Round 2 judging panels, although of course we couldn't have done it without all 100+ of our hardworking blogging volunteers.

That's 12:01 on February 14th, right here at Cybils.com--Valentine's Day for some, announcement day for those of us keeping tabs on the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards. See you soon!

Cybils Finalists Flyer Now Available

Yep, we've got a flyer for you already! This printable PDF has an overview of the Cybils contest on the front side and a list of every single finalist in every category on the back, so you can easily share our results so far with fellow readers, librarians, and so on. Of course, we'll be sharing an updated version of the flyer when the winners are announced, but for now, here you go:

Download Cybils2012Flyer-Finalists

 

Cybils Panelist Update: YA SFF Blog

We love it when our Cybils panelists post about what it's like to volunteer as a judge. A couple of weeks ago, we linked to a post by Round 1 YA Fiction panelist William Polking about what it's really like behind the scenes. This week, we've got a post from YA Fantasy and Sci-Fi blog's Aurora Celeste about how being a Round 1 judge is different from Round 2--having been in both of those roles, all I can say is boy, howdy. As Aurora puts it in her post, free books are only fun for a while...

Go check it out!

More Holiday Shopping Hints

Many, many of our bloggers provide lists of favorite books for your holiday shopping enjoyment, but in my opinion none is quite so much fun as MotherReader (and FPB category chair) Pam Coughlan's annual Ways to Give a Book list.

This year, she's put up an updated list of 150 Ways to Give a Book with book recommendations paired with related gift ideas - like Ladybug Girl with wings and antenna - and all with links for easy purchase. There are also ways to wrap a book, ideas for related outings, and gifts for book-loving adults from Etsy. It is really, really cool and helps support the MotherReader website.

Of course, don't forget that every book we post to the Cybils site--whether it's in a review or simply on the list of nominations--also links to Amazon, where every purchase made post-click means a dribble of money into the Cybils fund. So please consider your blogging friends when it comes time to do your holiday shopping!

The Holidays Are Coming--Shop Cybils!

Psst! Hey! You! Have you been checking out our book review posts? Or our nominations lists? You might notice that every book has a link to Amazon. Because we're an Amazon affiliate, every purchase you make through a Cybils link means we get a dribble of cash to use for our prizes and other materials (like flyers and bookmarks).

And we mean EVERY purchase. That's right--you don't have to just buy a Cybils-nominated title. You can click through from one of our posts and then buy a iPad or a jacuzzi or a private island. The bigger the purchase, the more of a commission we get. So please, please consider doing some of your Amazon holiday shopping after clicking one of our links! Or, you can give US a holiday gift and click that donate button at the top of the right-hand sidebar. The Cybils thanks you--you help keep us going!

What Being a Cybils Judge Is Really Like

Not everyone can be chosen as a Cybils judge. There are only so many spots available, and we like to populate them with both veterans and newbies, and we really do get a LOT of applicants, so we unfortunately can't pick everyone. We know you guys know that.

BUT: if you haven't participated yet and you're wondering what it's actually like being a judge--well, first-time Round 1 YA Fiction panelist William Polking, who blogs at Guys Lit Wire, has written up a thoughtful, funny post at Nerdy Book Club on the trials and tribulations of first-round Cybil-ing.

"I applied and thought little of it until I received a message telling me that I had been selected as a panelist," William wrote. "The message ominously threatened me with brusque claims about how many books I would have to read in the next two months or so. I laughed in the face of such rhetoric. You can never read too many books, or have too many books to read. Then the nominations started rolling in and the database kept expanding. The books began to multiply. I am no longer laughing."

Those of you who have been involved with Cybils before probably ARE laughing, but in recognition. I remember one crazy year when I was a Round 1 panelist for Fantasy and Sci-Fi, BEFORE the category was split into two age group panels. The entire floor of my office went missing for months, swallowed under stacks of books. William's post reminded me how much work it was--and how much fun I had, too. Go check it out.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Cybils!

In between cooking, eating, and reading, dare I say, a cornucopia of nominated titles, we here at the Cybils wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! For our part, we're not only grateful for our legions of devoted volunteers, but also to the authors and illustrators who lend their hearts to creating wonderful books and apps, and the readers whose enthusiasm and insatiable hunger for reading ensures that we'll be back at it for years to come.

If you're looking for a little something to whet your appetite, check out our review yesterday of a cute Thanksgiving picture book title, Balloons Over Broadway, or take a gander (um...no pun intended, although--roast goose, YUM) at this post by Debbie Reese which crossed our desk, celebrating books by Native American writers.

Have a lovely day!

Cybils Midterm Progress Report

Greetings, and welcome to the halfway point of the Cybils reading period! Wondering how many nominees we ended up with after the publisher submission period? Curious about how quickly (or slowly) we're proceeding? Hows about a quick update on how we're doing so far? As of last night:

Total eligible books across all categories: 1374, 1074 of which were public nominations and 300 of which were publisher submissions

Books read by at least 1 panelist: 1151, or 83.8% of the books

Books read by at least 2 panelists: 822, or 59.8% of the books

Unread books: 223, or 16.2% of the books

And now, a quick plug for our top readers so far (and a special W00T for my co-blogger, Tanita, the Fastest Reader Evar):

Panelists with the Most Books Read:

Rebecca Reid (Rebecca Reads), Fiction Picture Books: 141 books
Laura Given (LibLaura5), Fiction Picture Books: 130 books
Tanita S. Davis (Finding Wonderland), SFF/Teen: 103 books

Panelists with the Most Pages Read:

Tanita S. Davis (Finding Wonderland), SFF/Teen: 33,264 pages
Charlotte Taylor (Charlotte's Library), SFF/MG: 25,064 pages
Karen Yingling (Ms. Yingling Reads), MG Fiction: 23,578 pages

Keep rooting for our amazing book-guzzling panelists and your favorite titles, and please keep visiting the Cybils blog for a selection of reviews from our judges.

--Sarah Stevenson, blog editor