Perhaps the most difficult thing about being a Round 1 judge is letting go of your own personal favorites in order to create a finalist list. It’s a good thing: working with a panel means you get a variety of books for a diverse group of readers rather than, say, All The Books Blogger X Likes. But, there are just so many good books out there and sometimes letting one go is painful. That said, we love that bloggers are willing to express their views and highlight the ones that they loved that didn’t make the shortlist.
Here are a few links to posts we’ve noticed from our judges:
I’ll start with my Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction list of favorites. And my fellow panelist Katy at A Library Mama included her ten favorites as well.
Both Kim at Si, Se Puede and category chair Sheila at Wands and Worlds had books for the YA Speculative Fiction category.
Brandy at Random Musings of a Bibliophile highlighted some of her personal favorites from the Middle Grade Fiction category.
Carrie at Carry on Together highlighted Fiction Picture Books that she thought stood out from the pack.
And while Sandy at Unpacking the Power of Picture Books didn’t do a round-up, she had several posts about Fiction Picture Books that are excellent. (Click all the links to find out what she thought!)
And in other Cybils highlights, Middle Grade Fiction chair Ms. Yingling put up a list of her favorite Cybils finalists and winners from years past on her new podcast, Card Catalog. And Sherry at Semicolon put up a list of thirteen Cybils finalists that she would like to read.
If I missed your post, let me know and I’ll add it to the list.
As always, we would like to thank our judges for all their hard work! (And can’t wait to see what the Round 2 judges have to say!)