If you’ve been part of or followed the CYBILS Awards over the years, you know that we love to chat about great books for kids and teens.
We share our judges reviews, we post new releases, we get recommendations. We love it all!
Over the years, our judges tell us that one of the reasons they volunteer is because they know they will discover “hidden gems.” Those books that somehow, despite all their reading, they hadn’t heard about. Until the CYBILS came around. Hold that thought.
Why Goodreads?
We’re practically twins. Not really, but Goodreads was founded the same year we held our first award (2006). Goodreads is where a lot of readers go to review and recommend books, so if we want to talk books, it’s where we need to be.
For CYBILS 2021, blogs and Goodreads were neck-and-neck as the go-to spots to find reviews by our judges. In 2022, Goodreads is clearly the favorite review spot. Combine that with our judges’ interest in having more opportunities to connect with other readers and talk books (see hidden gems, above!), and here we are.
All the Books: Past, Present, and (maybe) Future
If you’re looking for reader-approved books for a young book lover, check out our bookshelves. All of the finalists and winners are cataloged by genre (or “category”) and audience going back to the very beginning!
Did you know that you can filter books by multiple shelves? It’s easy. We’ve chosen Graphic Novels for our example.
- Start with a bookshelf, either year or category. [Filters don’t work with all.]
- Scroll down to the last shelf.
- Click select multiple and a “+”sign will appear next to every shelf.
- Click the “+”sign for the additional filter you want to narrow your search even more.
Not a Goodreads fan but want to see all the books? Then check out our library on Storygraph. We aren’t keeping up with recommendations there, but you can find all the finalists and winners of the last 17 years.
So, what do you mean by “future?””
Glad you asked! For readers who like reading what’s new, we created a shelf for Books Eligible for the upcoming cycle. Books published between 10/16/2022 and 10/15/2023 can be nominated for the 2023 CYBILS Awards. [There are some other details we suggest you check out here.]
With this shelf, you might discover some hidden gems before the nominations open. Why? Because readers who recommend those books are sharing them with us. We have more recommendations than what’s pictured below, but isn’t this a great start?
If you have a must-read book that meets our criteria and you think it should be considered for nomination this year? Recommend it to us and we’ll put it on the shelf. We’ll even add a note that you recommended it to us. Just remember: these are ideas! The nomination process doesn’t begin until 10/1/2023.
Tune in next time, when we talk more about creating opportunities and building community.