Our Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction review of the day comes from panelist Carol Wilcox, who blogs at Carol's Corner and has been a Cybils regular for many years now. She's a mom and educator, and posts thoughtful reviews of picture books, chapter books, poetry, and more. Recently, she reviewed Cybils nominee Frog Song, written by Brenda Z. Guiberson and illustrated by …
REVIEW: Bad Girls
Jessica Tackett MacDonald blogs at Her Life With Books, and this year she's a Round 1 panelist for Young Adult Nonfiction. By day, she's a librarian who posts reviews and booklists of children's and YA literature as well as posts about library life, cat pictures, and other random fun things. Last week, Jessica posted about a few of this year's …
REVIEW: When Thunder Comes: Poems for Civil Rights Leaders
Today's featured review, in the Poetry category, comes from Round 1 Poetry panelist and longtime Cybils veteran Kelly Fineman of Writing and Ruminating. Kelly is a poet herself, so she knows whereof she speaks–she's the author of the lovely picture book At the Boardwalk. Earlier this year, she reviewed Cybils Poetry nominee When Thunder Comes: Poems for Civil Rights Leaders …
Review of Charm and Strange
Maureen E., a library assistant and aspiring writer, blogs at By Singing Light, where she participates in Picture Book Monday and has a great list of Historical Fantasies. This year, she is serving as a round one judge in Young Adult fiction and has listed all of her Cybils reviews here. Charm and Strange, by Stephanie Kuehn, was nominated in …
Review of Amelia and the Terror of the Night
Jill Goodman reviews book apps for Smart Apps for Kids, a website that has all sorts of information about book apps as well as lists of apps based on age and interest level. She has this review of Amelia and the Terror of the Night posted. "OhNoo has created a masterpiece. The only book app that approaches this level …
Review of Dodsworth in Tokyo
Reshama works with several others to create the great blog, Stacking Books, that is meant to help parents and friends to motivate and inspire children to read. She is on the second round panel for Nonfiction/Elementary and Middle Grade, but posted a review on the Easy Readers/Short Chapter Books nomination Dodsworth in Tokyo by Tim Egan. "This is a delightful …
Review of Garden Princess
Brandy Painter blogs at Random Musings of a Bibliophile and is on the Middle Grade Speculative Fiction first round panel this year. She says this about Kristin Kladstrup's Garden Princess: " I am always excited when a new princess tale comes out. I unashamedly love them. Garden Princess by Kristin Kladrup is a lovely new addition to this genre. This …
Some musings on publisher/author submissions
Last year for the first time, we provided a separate window of time when publishers and authors could submit their own books. From the beginning, we've always allowed publishers and authors to nominate their own books, but there were problems. Our nomination process, especially the "one nomination per person per category" rule, didn't work well for publishers, and there was …
Review of Mind Games
Stephanie Charlefour is a public librarian, specializing in youth and teens in Michigan and blogs at Love.Life.Read. She had this to say about Kiersten White's Mind Games. "I picked this book up on a Sunday morning—not sure what to expect. I read the synopsis and it sounded interesting but I have never read a book by Ms. White. Let me …
Review of Giant Dance Party
Aaron Zenz, a dad and illustrator, harnesses the power of actual members of the Fiction Picture Book demographic on his blog, Bookie Wookie Reviews. Here's what he and his family have to say about Betsy Bird's Giant Dance Party: Isaac (age 14): “Giant Dance Party.” Lily (age 10): (singing) Hey, hey, hey, it’s a good book! Gracie (age 12): When …