Our featured reviewer of this wintry Friday is Cybils veteran Sarah Gross of The Reading Zone, one of our Round 1 judges for YA Fiction. Sarah is currently a high school English teacher passionate about finding great books to share with her students. Fun fact: She is the brains behind the ARCs Float On project, which aims to connect bloggers …
REVIEW
Nasty Bugs by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Today's review comes from our very own Poetry Category Chair, Jone MacCulloch. Jone blogs at Check It Out, and she's a library media specialist in Washington state. She's also an avid reader, photographer, poet, and frequent participant in Poetry Friday. Fun fact: for four years running, she's organized the Postcard Poetry Project, in which participants receive a student-written poem on …
REVIEW
Chuck Close: Face Book by Chuck Close
Jessica Tackett of the blog Her Life With Books is today's featured reviewer–a Round 1 judge for MG/YA Nonfiction, she is also a fledgling librarian who enjoys reading children's and YA lit as well as, occasionally, writing it. Being all librarian-y, her blog features a wonderfully orderly list of reviews by genre for your reading edification. Fun fact: Jessica also …
REVIEW
Electric Ben by Robert Byrd
Ellen Zschunke of the blog On the Shelf 4 Kids is today's featured reviewer. She's an elementary school librarian in Pennsylvania, and blogs not only about books (especially NFPB, where she's a Round 1 judge), but also about library projects and curriculum. Fun fact: She's also a coordinator for her school's TV studio! Recently, she reviewed Cybils nonfiction picture books …
REVIEW
Caddy’s World by Hilary McKay
Ourintrepid Middle Grade Fiction category chair, Karen Yingling, is today's featured reviewer. She blogs at Ms. Yingling Reads, where she reviews books for middle school students (both MG and YA), particularly boys. Her reviews are helpfully divided into adventure, fantasy, historical, humor, and sports. Fun Fact: she's got a great list of websites about boy books, if you're looking for …
Cybils Panelist Update: YA SFF Blog
We love it when our Cybils panelists post about what it's like to volunteer as a judge. A couple of weeks ago, we linked to a post by Round 1 YA Fiction panelist William Polking about what it's really like behind the scenes. This week, we've got a post from YA Fantasy and Sci-Fi blog's Aurora Celeste about how being …
REVIEW
Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks
Mama Librarian–aka Maggi Idzikowski–is a Cybils regular and a Round 1 panelist this year for Graphic Novels. She posts reviews on Goodreads as well as on her blog, where she and her kids rate books according to awesomeness, wordsmithing, personages, mesmerizitude, illustrations, and factfulness. Fun fact: She's also a member of The Newbery Project blog, which aims to read and …
REVIEW
I’m Bored by Michael Ian Black
Rebecca Reid blogs, appropriately, at Rebecca Reads, and she's also a Round 1 judge for this year's Fiction Picture Books category. On her blog, she posts not only about children's literature from board books through young adult, but also nonfiction and classics. She also posts about homeschooling and other reader-ly topics. Fun fact: her favorite reads range from Winnie-the-Pooh to …
More Holiday Shopping Hints
Many, many of our bloggers provide lists of favorite books for your holiday shopping enjoyment, but in my opinion none is quite so much fun as MotherReader (and FPB category chair) Pam Coughlan's annual Ways to Give a Book list. This year, she's put up an updated list of 150 Ways to Give a Book with book recommendations paired with related gift …
REVIEW
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Today's review comes from Cybils regular Emma Carbone, of the wonderfully named blog Miss Print. She's a Round 2 judge for YA Fantasy and Sci-Fi, and on her blog she reviews various YA books as well as doing a weekly Chick Lit Wednesday post from a feminist perspective. Fun fact: she also loves making book lists, and has a number …