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 …
REVIEW
A Leaf Can Be… by Laura Purdie Salas
Today's featured review comes from our new NFPB category organizer, Jennifer Wharton, who blogs at Jean Little Library. You can read all about her in her Cybils bio, but I'll still provide you with a Fun Fact: She also keeps a blog called Storytime Extras, where she posts all the fun songs and activities she uses during library storytime. Since …
REVIEW
The Fairy Ring: Or Elsie and Frances Fool the World by Mary Losure
Amelia Yunker of Challenging the Bookworm provides our featured review for the day. Amelia is actually a Round 2 judge for MG Fantasy and Sci-Fi, but as the Head of Children's and Young Adult Services at a library, she reads widely and blogs about everything from children's books to young adult literature and grown-up books. Fun fact: her blog tags …
REVIEW
The Whole Story of Half a Girl by Veera Hiranandani
Today's featured review comes from Ali Breidenstein, a Round 1 Judge for Middle Grade Fiction who posts at Literary Lunchbox. She reviews a wide range of books from picture books through young adult novels, as well as participating in various blog challenges. Fun fact: One of her favorite books is Island of the Blue Dolphins. Another book she enjoyed was …
REVIEW
Drama by Raina Telgemeier
Debra Touchette, a Round 1 Judge for Graphic Novels this year, is a blogger not only at her own blog, (Library Lass) Adventures in Reading, but also at the group blog Guys Lit Wire. She's got a Master's in Literature and is an apprentice librarian. Fun fact: Although she can now command words the way a mighty goddess commands planets …
REVIEW
Barefoot World Atlas by Touch Press
Today's featured reviewer is Cathy Potter, who is a Round 1 Book Apps judge. She blogs at The Nonfiction Detectives, where she and her co-blogger (also a Cybils judge this year) review, of course, nonfiction for readers aged 5-18. Fun fact: Cathy reviews book apps for School Library Journal, which is where today's review is from. The Barefoot World Atlas …
2012 Nominations Roundup
Here they are–the fast facts about this year's Cybils nominating period! From October 1-15, book-loving bloggers and members of the public nominated a whopping 1074 eligible books across all categories of the Cybils. The category with the most books overall is, not surprisingly, Fantasy and Science Fiction, with a total of 287 books–122 in Middle Grade SFF and 165 in …
REVIEW
Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Our review for the day comes from Cybils veteran panelist Travis Jonker, who blogs at 100 Scope Notes. An elementary school librarian and School Library Journal reviewer, Travis has been reviewing books at his blog for the past 5 years and has participated in Cybils for several of those. This year he's a Round 1 judge for Fiction Picture Books. …
5 Reasons to Love the Cybils
This year, our own Charlotte Taylor, MG SFF Round 1 judge and blogger at Charlotte's Library, wrote up a post with five reasons why people should nominate books for the Cybils. Though the nominations period has ended, we still think Charlotte's list is noteworthy–and not only that, these are five excellent reasons to love and support the Cybils, not just …