Our Poetry Category Chair, Jone MacCulloch, has posted part one of what will be a three-part series interviewing some of her panelists in the Poetry category. Wondering who these folks are and what they're looking for in a poetry nominee? Here's a brief excerpt of the interview on Jone's blog, Check It Out: MsMac [aka Jone]: What is your day …
REVIEW
Cardboard by DougTenNapel
Allie Jones, a Round 1 judge for Graphic Novels, has a blog title we can all relate to: In Bed With Books. You might know her by her online handle Liviania; on her blog she reviews a wide range of books and graphic novels, both YA and grown-up, and also posts interviews and other items of kidlit interest. Fun Fact: …
Cybils Midterm Progress Report
Greetings, and welcome to the halfway point of the Cybils reading period! Wondering how many nominees we ended up with after the publisher submission period? Curious about how quickly (or slowly) we're proceeding? Hows about a quick update on how we're doing so far? As of last night: Total eligible books across all categories: 1374, 1074 of which were public …
REVIEW
Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten! by Hyewon Yum
Today's featured review comes from another Cybils returnee, Danielle Smith, who blogs at There's A Book. A reader, a writer, and a mom of two kids, Danielle is a Round 1 judge for Fiction Picture Books, and at her blog, she's always got something kidlit-related going, from reviews to interviews to giveaways. Fun Fact: Her very first favorite book as …
REVIEW
Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities by Mike Jung
Cybils veteran Melissa Fox of Book Nut is today's featured blogger, and this year she's a Round 1 panelist for Middle-Grade Fantasy and Sci-Fi. She's a bookseller in Kansas who reviews primarily MG and YA fiction and SFF, with the occasional nonfiction book, adult read, or graphic novel thrown in. Fun Fact: she also contributes to a YA blog called …
REVIEW
Lulu and the Duck in the Park by Hilary McKay
Jeff Barger of NC Teacher Stuff–a Round 1 judge for Easy Readers and Short Chapter Books–is today's featured blogger. He's a second grade teacher and returnee to the Cybils, and on his blog, he provides links, reviews, and other resources for classroom teachers. Fun fact: His blog sidebar has a ton of lists of online learning tools for math, science, …
REVIEW
Pete’s Robot by Heartdrive Media LLC
Carisa Kluver, a Round 1 judge for Book Apps, writes reviews of book apps for Digital Storytime and Digital Media Diet, where she serves up thoughtful opinions on how we can best provide a balanced digital media diet for our kids. Fun Fact: Carisa and her husband have developed many smartphone apps of their own, mostly finance apps for Android. …
REVIEW
The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder
Our review for the day comes from Round 1 YA judge Clementine Bojangles, of the fabulously named blog Early Nerd Special, where she posts about books, movies, TV shows, and pop culture. Fun Fact: She also has a Sweet Valley High blog headlined A Critical Analysis of Sweet Valley's Most Famous Twins. Earlier this year, she reviewed YA Fiction nominee …
REVIEW
I’ve Lost My Hippopotamus by Jack Prelutsky
Mary Lee Hahn is a longtime Cybils judge, along with her co-blogger at A Year of Reading, Franki Sibberson. Mary Lee's a teacher, author of Reconsidering Read-Aloud, and, dare I say it, a Kidlitosphere fixture, especially when it comes to Poetry Friday. Fun Fact: her blog has an exhaustive list not only of other great kidlit blogs, but also teacher/librarian …
Cybils Updates
Cybils sends our best wishes to those of you (and those of us!) who were inundated by Hurricane Sandy over the past several days. We hope you all stayed warm, safe, and dry. Due to the wild weather, we're a little bit behind in making our contacts with publishers (many of whom have offices in the disaster zone), but we're …