Today's featured review comes courtesy of Wild Rose Reader's Elaine Magliaro, Round I Poetry panelist and children's poet in her own right. And the review is rather special, since the Cybils finalist author in question is Joyce Sidman–not only is she a past Cybils winner, she's got two–count 'em, TWO–titles on the finalist list this year. Way back in the …
REVIEW
Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade by Stephanie Greene
We featured a review by Easy Readers and Early Chapter Books Round I judge Jeff Barger reeeallly early on in this year's Cybils, but in case you've forgotten, Jeff is a kindergarten teacher in North Carolina who blogs in order to help fellow teachers find quality resources they can use in their classrooms, from math and science to reading and …
REVIEW
The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
Jill Foltz, one of our Round II judges for Middle Grade Fiction this year, blogs at The O.W.L.: Outrageously Wonderful Literature for the Middle Grades. More precisely, she blogs along with Team OWL, a group of students in her 7th grade English classes. They look at all sorts of books–MG and YA–that are great for 7th graders. One of those …
REVIEW
I Now Pronounce You Someone Else by Erin McCahan
Michelle Franz of Galleysmith has been an active book blogger since mid-2009, and shares her love of books through in-depth, thoughtful reviews. She's also an instructional/educational technologist–i.e., she works on ways to use technology to assist in learning–and she's a Round II judge on our Young Adult Fiction panel. One of the books she read and reviewed last year was …
REVIEW
Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down by Andrea Davis Pinkney
Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) is the largest children's literacy nonprofit organization in the country, so it's no wonder that RIF's CEO, Carol Rasco, is a book lover. What you might not know is that she's also a blogger at Rasco from RIF, and a Round II judge for Nonfiction and Information Picture Books. Carol reviews a lot of kids' books, …
Attention, Librarians and Booksellers!
*Contest Alert!* We know that many of you bookish folks are busily setting up displays of Newbery and Caldecott honor books, now that the ALA awards have been announced. We've got a challenge for you, too: Set up a display of Cybils finalists (any of them) and either post a link here in the comments, or send us a photo …
REVIEW
Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess by George O’Connor
Maggi Idzikowski is a Round I judge in our Graphic Novels category this year. On her blog Mama Librarian, she tracks her progress in numerous reading challenges and posts concise capsule reviews of books she reads with her four-year old. Her reviews take into account criteria both practical and entertaining, such as Awesomeness and Mesmerizitude. This past fall, Maggi looked …
REVIEW
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
One of our Round II judges in Fiction Picture Books this year is Katie Davis, who blogs at Brain Burps About Books. Katie Davis is the author and illustrator of several picture books herself, and on her blog, she posts podcasts about children's literature, including fascinating behind-the-scenes interviews with authors and illustrators. Last month, Katie looked at Cybils FPB finalist …
ALA Youth Media Awards
You've no doubt heard by now that the American Library Association's annual Youth Media Award winners were announced yesterday. What you might not have noticed is that a number of our own Cybils finalists were honored during the awards: Dark Emperor by Joyce Sidman (Poetry): Newbery Honor We Are in a Book by Mo Willems (Easy Readers): Geisel Honor Ship …
REVIEW
The Hive Detectives: Chronicle of a Honey Bee Catastrophe by Loree Griffin Burns
Today's featured review comes from longtime kidlit (and adult lit) reviewer Colleen Mondor, Round II judge in the Middle Grade/YA Nonfiction category. Colleen blogs at Chasing Ray as well as being a columnist for Bookslut. Among her many kidlitosphere activities are the Blog Blast Tours–a biannual weeklong festival of author/illustrator interviews–and the What a Girl Wants series featuring YA authors. …