–A note from Anne Levy, Cybils Administrator: I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad problem assembling this year’s Cybils finalists. Most of our first-round judges decided to sign their summaries for the short-listed titles. That meant inserting links to their blogs. And that meant meandering through their recent posts, catching up with old friends, making some new discoveries…and …
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Happy New Year, everyone! I just came down from the roof–literally–where I was watching some fireworks in a neighboring city. (I work nights and our office has a rooftop viewing deck.) We're just about 6 hours away from posting the 2009 finalists. I promise they're worth getting out of bed early for. See you all in the New Year, and …
2009 Finalists: Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction
Candor by Pam Bachorz Egmont USA Nominated by: Chelsea Campbell Oscar Banks has fooled the town of Candor, Florida, into thinking he’s the perfect son. Even his father, the town’s founder, believes that the subliminal messages he invented and that are carried by ever-present music, have brainwashed Oscar into becoming one more “good kid” among many. Oscar, though, knows about …
2009 Finalists: Middle-Grade Fantasy & Science Fiction
11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass Scholastic Nominated by: Maggi Idzikowski Amanda’s 11th birthday is the worst ever, and when she wakes up the next morning, she discovers that she and her ex-friend Leo are doomed to repeat the same day over and over–and over! Amanda and Leo’s attempts to live the day the “right” way to break the spell are …
REVIEW
Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger
Amanda Snow of A Patchwork of Books is a repeat Cybils panelist, and this year she's a Round I judge for the Young Adult Fiction category. Amanda is a children's librarian in Virginia who reviews all genres of children's books (and even some adult books) on her blog. Cybils YA nominee Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger was featured on …
A little hint or three
I'm cutting and pasting short lists this week and there's a few changes behind the scenes you might find intriguing. For starters, the person who nominated a finalist gets a mention. I'm not done with the lists, and there's a good chance that my weak math skills are leading me astray, but there are two bloggers tied for most nominations …
2009 Finalists: Easy Readers & Short Chapter Books
2009 Easy Reader Finalists Dinosaur Hunt (Max Spaniel) by David Catrow Orchard Books Nominated by: Becky Max isn’t a dog, he’s a dinosaur hunter…and hunt he does, looking here and there and everywhere for dinosaur parts. The text in this easy reader is just right for a child learning to read, with short simple sentences and commonly used words. The …
2009 Finalists: Young Adult Fiction
Blue Plate Special by Michelle D. Kwasney Chronicle Books Nominated by: Jo Knowles With Blue Plate Special, Michelle Kwasney has crafted a finely woven plot where the threads of three lives in three different decades create an emotional and gripping tapestry. The depth of that tapestry builds as threads are broken, severed and tied back together. It is about how …
2009 Finalists: Non-Fiction Middle Grade & Young Adult Books
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose Farrar, Straus & Giroux Nominated by: Elaine Phillip Hoose’s Claudette Colvin tells the story of a remarkable yet largely unknown civil rights figure. In March 1955, nine months before the famous Rosa Parks incident, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in …
REVIEW
1000 Times No by Tom Warburton
I can hardly believe that we haven't yet featured our tireless Fiction Picture Books category organizer yet, in our series of reviews by Cybils bloggers, but evidently it's true. Pam Coughlan, aka Mother Reader, is hilarious, energetic, and well-known around the kidlitosphere for her fun recurring blog features like the 48-Hour Book Challenge and Bloggers Against Celebrity Authors. Earlier this …