Beth Mitcham was a special case. Her junior high librarians ruled that for weeding purposes, she did not count towards a book’s check-out statistics, because she had read all the books. This love of reading continued through her college career, where she continued to search out public libraries because those college institutions just weren’t enough. She never stopped reading children’s …
NEW Graphic Novels Chair: Kristen Harvey
Kristen Harvey is an elementary school Library Media Specialist in the suburbs of Chicago and has worked with diverse populations for over 10 years. From a young age, she dreamed of becoming a librarian and while training to become a teacher in college she spent her time working in a variety of public and college libraries. For several years she …
Introducing Our New Chairs
That makes it sound like we actually got some furniture in this place, doesn’t it? Actually, we have three new category organizers, and I think it would be good to introduce them to y’all. Their individual posts will run shortly. If you haven’t gone to check out our entire organizing team (there has been a bit of shuffling around this …
In Memorium: Teri Lessene
We here at Cybils are saddened to learn of the death of Teri Lesesne, @librarynana. As well as being a professional colleague and personal friend to many of us, Teri brought her enthusiasm and knowledge of children’s books to the Cybils Awards, serving as a panelist for many years. Her family has asked that donations be made in honor of …
2021 Cybils are Here: A Call for Judges
We’re limping towards normal around here, slowly but surely. Publishing seems to be back on track, and there have been a good number of excellent children’s and young adult books out this year. So, what better way to get past division and stress and anxiety about the state of the world than to volunteer for the Cybils? (I can’t think …
Save the Date: It’s Time to Think about Applying!
It’s difficult to believe that six months have gone by since we announced our 2020 winners, and yet here we are: it’s the start of another Cybils Awards Season! We will be opening up our volunteer applications shortly, so keep an eye out for that. If you haven’t engaged with us this summer on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and (now: look …
The 2020 Cybils Winners!
Year after year, it never ceases to amaze us how the Cybils Awards manages to come together. From the people who volunteer as chairs to the panelists who spend so much of their fall reading, to the judges who thoughtfully deliberate to choose a winner. It was especially challenging this year, with the pandemic, and we are especially grateful for …
The BIG Day is Nearly Here!
Get ready! The announcement for the 2020 Cybils Finalists are TOMORROW, Feburary 14th at 9 a.m PST. We’re super excited to share it all with you!
2020 Cybils Finalists: The Ones that Got Away
One of the things that makes a first-round panelist’s job so hard is the act of working with everyone to narrow down the list to five to seven books. When you have nearly 100 books on the list (or more sometimes!) that means, inevitably, really great books were not going to make the shortlist. We’d like to take a minute …
Twitter 2020 Cybils Finalists Roud-Up!
It’s been a little more than a week since we announced our finalists for 2020 Cybils and we love to see the Twitter celebration! And since y’all might have missed it, we thought we’d share some of our favorites here! We're honored to share that THE STORY OF CIVIL WAR HERO ROBERT SMALLS is a @CybilsAwards 2020 finalist in the …