Jennifer is excited to be a first-time category chair for Nonfiction Picture Books. She has been on Cybils panels for three years and is looking forward to being in control. Mwa-ha-ha! When not obsessively reading and reviewing for one of her two blogs, Jean Little Library and Flying Off My Bookshelf she is the youth services librarian for the mid-sized public library …
Meet Liz Jones, Graphic Novels Chair
Liz Jones has participated in the Cybils graphics group one way or another since 2007. For the past few years, a 90 hour work week put a damper on her posting at lizjonesbooks.livejournal.com — but she's happy to be down off that schedule in 2012. She's busily catching up on her reading, sending her college students off in search of …
Meet Karen Yingling, Our New Middle Grade Fiction Chair
A middle aged, middle school librarian from the Midwest, I've been blogging since 2006 at Ms. Yingling Reads. My students are impressed that I've read every hardcover fiction book in our school library, but it was really an evil plan to be allowed to read to my heart's content and be able to tell people to stop bugging me because …
Welcome to the 2012 Cybils
The 2012 Cybils Awards are officially underway, and you'll be hearing a lot more from us via the blog in the coming weeks! Meanwhile, our organizing team is busy behind the scenes picking out judges, distributing our 2011 flyers, updating our Cybils swag, and gearing up for the start of nominations on Oct. 1. For a walk down memory lane, …
Three More Days to Apply for a Judging Panel!
Worried that you've missed the deadline to apply for a Cybils panel? Well, you've still got time–but only until Friday, August 31st! And we've got a few panels that still need love, too. So, bloggers–if you've got an interest in MG/YA Nonfiction, Poetry, or Easy Readers/Short Chapter Books, then we ESPECIALLY want you to fill in our application form. Whether …
Follow Last Year’s Cybils Winners on Twitter
We noticed that a number of our 2011 Cybils winning authors and illustrators and (for Book Apps) developers are (with varying degrees of activity) on Twitter. Here's a list of the ones that we have found so far. @CallawayDigital (publisher of Book Apps winner The Monster at the End of This Book) @MuttsComics (home of Patrick McDonnell, author of Fiction Picture …
2012 Cybils Call for Judges
It's that time of year again! We're now officially recruiting judges for both rounds of the Cybils contest. To apply for either round, just follow these two easy steps: First, everything you need to know is spelled out right here, or click on the "Judging" link on the top nav bar. Second, fill out our handy application form, which is …
New Logos for 2012
Get 'em while they're hot! Oh, I know it's a little early and the Cybils process isn't going to really get going until next month, but you know you want to be an early bird. Hint, hint, ahem. You can spread the word with a sidebar-friendly button, a slightly larger graphic, or a big ol' full-sized attention-grabbing pic. Collect them …
Cybils App Organizer Interviews Author William Joyce
The organizer for the Cybils Book App category, Mary Ann Scheuer, just posted a fabulous interview on her blog with William Joyce, author of The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Mary Ann also shares a speech that William Joyce gave about his inspiration for the story, which is currently number one on the New York Times Bestselling Children's Picture Books list. The …
Rest in Peace Margaret Mahy
It's been a sad summer for the children's book community. Scarcely more than a week after the dual losses of Donald J. Sobol and Else Holmelund Minarik, we learned today that Margaret Mahy, author of more than 200 children's books, passed away this weekend at the age of 76. Cybils organizer Gina Ruiz has collected a wide range of tributes to …