Middle Grade Fiction panelist Jennifer is not only a long-time, hard-working panelist, but is also the managing editor of 5 minutes for Books, which highlights everything from picture books through adult fiction. Over the summer, she reviewed Middle Grade Fiction finalist The Meaning of Maggie, by Megan Jean Sovern, writing: The Meaning of Maggie is a fun heartfelt book. I love …
Cybils Flyers
Our wonderful media guru, Sarah Stevenson, has worked her magic and provided a printer-friendly flyer listing all of this year’s Cybils finalists. You can find it here. Feel free to print it off, hand it out, pass it around, and generally get the word out. You can also find lists of our past finalists (and winners) in the books section of …
Review: Boys of Blur
Today’s featured review is of Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction finalist Boys of Blur by N. D. Wilson. It was featured on quite a few blogs, but I think EMFSF panelist Brandy, blogging over at Random Musings of a Bibliophile said it best: The imagery and descriptiveness of the book are pretty much perfect. As I read, I felt like I …
Review: Firefly July
Today’s review of the day comes from Poetry panelist Kelly, who blogs at Writing and Ruminating. Back during National Poetry month, she reviewed Poetry finalist Firefly July by Paul B. Janeczko and illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Kelly wrote: Most of the poems fall into the “imagist” category: full of clear, sharp language, and conveying a clear snapshot description of the poem’s …
2014 Finalists: Things That are Being Said, Part 2
Wernick & Pratt (@WernickPratt): Hats off to Bryan Collier and @The_Pigeon, whose books were named @cybils Finalists!http://t.co/8slBJ0tY0y Jennifer Morris (@jenmorris80): Steve and Wessley Cybils Finalists: Steve and Wessley’s first book, The Ice Cream Shop is a finalist in the Cybils. Jennifer also wrote a blog post about it! Laura Cecil Agency (@LCecilLitAgency): Congratulations to @Alexmilway whose Pigsticks & Harold has …
Review: Feathers: Not Just For Flying
Today’s review comes from Carol, a round one Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction panelist, who blogs at Carol’s Corner. She reviewed finalist Feathers: Not Just for Flying, by Melissa Stewart, writing: Great for a lesson on birds, animal adaptations, metaphor, or capturing information on illustrations! Or just plain reading and enjoying! Read the rest of the review here.
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, …
2014 Finalists: The Ones that Got Away
Every year, our panelists read hundreds of books (generally). Which means, every year, when they as a group narrow the books down to finalists, there are some that don’t make the cut. Here are some posts by panelists highlighting great books in their categories that didn’t quite make the cut. Kim at Si, Se Puede highlights some of her favorite …
The 2014 Finalists: What’s Being Said
Every year, we love seeing the reactions of the authors, publishers, spouses, and fans after the Cybils finalists announcement goes up. Here are a few of the reactions that caught our attention this weekend: Tara Dairman (@TaraDairman): What delicious news to wake up to today: ALL FOUR STARS is a @Cybils finalist for middle-grade fiction! @penguinkids Huge thanks to @debamarshall for the …
2014 Finalists: By The Numbers
Just a little bit of tooting our own horn (we’ll get to other’s celebratory tweets on Sunday. Promise!), mostly because we’re incredibly proud of all the work that the first round panelists did. Anne already highlighted the diversity in the finalists, but in addition: There were 1,333 books eligible across all categories. Of those books, 99.9% were read by one panelist. 97.1% of …