It wouldn't be Fall without a lot of freshly sharpened pencils, my requisite new pair of school shoes, plenty of apple cider, homemade pie on Sunday and the Cybils. If I had to choose between my prize-winning apple pie and the Cybils, I'm not sure I could. I love pie a whole lot. Therefore, I love the Cybils a whole …
Meet Gina Ruiz, DoDA, er, Nonfiction MG/YA Organizer
Gina's been with the Cybils in one capacity or another since it started and thinks its a most wondrous thing. Gina has spent four years as a graphic novel panelist, last year she dabbled in poetry and this year (gulp) she is teaching Defense of the Dark Arts – er, make that she's an organizer for the nonfiction MG/YA category. …
Judging Deadline
While the deadline to apply for judging for this Cybils season isn't until Thursday, it looks like we have nearly enough applicants in every category. A few genres, like Poetry and Nonfiction, have once again needed to recruit people to fill empty slots. Young Adult and Science Fiction/Fantasy usually have far too many candidates and the winnowing process is tough …
Meet Jone MacCulloch, Poetry Organizer
Editor's note: Jone has written us a shadorma, a poem with a meter of 3-5-3-3-7-5. Estactic Organizerfor Poetry Northwest girl Been with the CYBILS from startChases dragonflies Jone writes for two blogs; Check It Out and Deo Writer, her poetry blog.
Meet Mary Ann Scheuer
Multi-tasking Mary Ann is how she introduced herself lately – but perhaps that's apt as we delve into the world of Book Apps that seem to do so many things at once. Mary Ann is a school librarian, mom to three, grad student and blogger. Each day she spreads a love of reading with 300 elementary students in Berkeley, CA …
Warning: English major, cannot do math
For some reason, I didn't order enough bookmarks. I printed up 2,000 and about 40 people requested them. I don't know why 40 doesn't divide evenly into 2,000 but — horrors — I have run out of bookmarks! I still have more than half of you to go. Aak. I need to take a stack to Kidlit Con but otherwise, …
Meet Terry Doherty, Easy Reader & Short Chapter Books Organizer
In 1989, First Lady Barbara Bush helped me see that literacy is, in part, passing on a love of reading. Nothing excited me more than building a library in our nursery, and now, watching my almost-10-year-old grow as a reader. Like the excitement of Christmas morning, there'is something magical in the moment a child realizes they know how to read. …
Back to the apps!
Keep those questions coming, folks. Today, a judging applicant emailed about the book apps category. She wanted to know if she'd have to buy the apps under consideration. Well, gosh no, I thought — but then I don't know how these things work, exactly. Our wonderful, completely on-top-of-things book app organizer, Mary Ann Scheuer, put the question to the other …
Meet Fiona Bayrock, Nonfiction Picture Book Organizer
After a two-year hiatus, Fiona is thrilled to be back on the Cybils organizing team again. As a children's science writer, she spends her days chasing questions through the "ologies", talking to scientists around the world, and then writing about the quirky, cool, amazing science she finds. Her work has appeared in magazines such as Highlights for Children, KNOW, YES …
Meet Pam Coughlan, Fiction Picture Books Organizer
Continuing with the Cybils as category organizer for Fiction Picture Books, Pam Coughlan writes the blog MotherReader and administers the website KidLitosphere Central. Two daughters and ten years in the children's department of public libraries kindled her passion for picture books. Now managing the schedules of two teenage girls, she appreciates the genre even more for delivering the essence of …