Round 1 Kirsti Call Kirsti Call, Children’s Book Author/ ReFoReMo Goodreads Twitter: @kirsticall Instagram: @kirsticall Nicole Levesque Bluestocking Thinking Twitter: @BlueSockGirl Instagram: @BluestockingThinking Deb Nance Readerbuzz Goodreads Twitter: @debnance Instagram: @debnance Lynne Marie Pisano My Word Playground Twitter: @Literally_Lynne Sam Richardson Little Cub Literacy Twitter: @lilcubliteracy Instagram: @littlecubliteracy Maggi Rohde Goodreads Twitter: @mama_librarian Aimee Smith Keep a Book About Twitter: …
Regarding Baby Monkey
It has been brought to our attention that one of our finalists, Baby Monkey, Private Eye, has racial representation issues. Significantly, anthropomorphized monkeys have been used throughout United States history as a tool of white supremacy, to demean and dehumanize African-Americans and justify slavery, Jim Crow, and continued racial injustices. While we are sure that Baby Monkey, Private Eye was …
List Fun: Diverse Cybils Picture Book Finalists
Having served on my first Cybils committee this year, I can attest that a great deal of thought, discussion, and debate goes into narrowing down the finalists to the eventual winner. This experience has made me realize that finalists and winners of any award should be considered on nearly-equal footing. This Top 10 list was created not only to honor …
List Fun: Cybils Books of Jewish Interest
As a synagogue librarian and Past President of the Association of Jewish Libraries, I am very happy that the diverse selections of the Cybils judges include quite a few books of Jewish content. By now we’ve all heard the “windows and mirrors” maxim, that authentic literature about any minority provides insight for outsiders and validation for members. Jews have a …
Helping Our Friends at RIF
From the Reading Is Fundamental website: Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) announced it has joined forces with Macy’s and D.C. Public Schools to combat the summer learning slide among through reading high-quality books and enrichment activities. The pilot reading program is based on Read for Success, an innovative literacy model developed by RIF and proven to help improve reading proficiency among …
Review: The Chicken Squad
You’ve missed the reviews, haven’t you? Well, for the next few weeks, we’ll be highlighting books from the finalists. Today’s review of Easy Reader/Beginning Chapter Book finalist The Chicken Squad: The First Misadventure, by Doreen Cronin and Kevin Cornell comes from panelist Maggi, who has blogged at Mama Librarian. She writes: This early chapter book has perfect tone for a mystery, …
A Year of Gratitude
Franki and Mary Lee over at A Year of Reading are wrapping up a full year of celebrating the bloggers who’ve inspired them in their eight-year Internet journey. They’re capping their celebrations with a tribute to the Kidlitosphere, the hub for our little corner of the blogosphere. And even though Thanksgiving is over, we’re adding an extra thanks to both …
Calling all publishers, authors, and app developers
Tomorrow, October 16, is the start of the period where publishers, publicists, authors, and app developers may submit your own books for consideration for the Cybils Awards. From October 16-25, you may submit any titles not already nominated by the general public, up to 10% of your 2014 children’s/YA list. The titles nominated by the public do not count towards the 10%, and …
And Now…
We’re almost ready to announce the panelists and judges for the 2014 Cybils. We just need to get a few more things in order, and we’ll be ready to announce them on Wednesday, September 17th, starting at 10 a.m., PDT. We’re very pleased with the people who have volunteered their time (definitely), money (maybe a little), and firstborn children (almost never) …
Cybils Judges and Authors on Women’s History
It's Women's History Month, and in honor of that, two of our longtime Cybils judges, Kelly Jensen and Kimberly Francisco of the blog STACKED, invited 10 female YA authors (ahem, including your temporary blog editor) to write about either female YA authors, female YA characters, or broader topics about girls in YA. I had a lot of fun talking about …