Look in the sidebar right next to this column. Scroll down just below the ads and genre list. What do you see? Our new widget! Yes, you too can have this glamorous widget for your website or blog. It shows off a different nominated title whenever you refresh the page — though you can customize it to show just your …
REVIEW
Alice’s Shooting Star by Tim Kennemore
The Jean Little Library is the personal library of Jennifer Wharton, a youth services librarian at a small public library in Wisconsin. Jennifer is one of our panelists this year for Easy Readers and Short Chapter Books, and she blogs not only at Check It Out @MML but also provides insightful book reviews and other helpful resources via her blog …
This Just In! Cybils Nominee Wins National Book Award
The National Book Award winners were announced tonight, and we were proud as could be to see that one of our Cybils nominees for MG/YA Non-Fiction, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose, was the winner for Young People's Literature. Colvin herself–who was jailed as a teenager in 1955 for not giving up her seat to a white woman …
REVIEW
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
Sarah Woodard of Sarah's Random Musings is our featured blogger for today, and if you're a fan of YA book reviews and interviews with authors, you'll definitely want to cruise by her virtual home. Sarah is an aspiring writer and high school student in Washington State, and some of her favorite YA authors include John Green, Meg Cabot, and Melina …
REVIEW
Where Else in the Wild?
Jone MacCulloch is our Non-Fiction Picture Books category organizer this year, and at her blog Check It Out, she looks at books from the perspective of a K-5 school library media specialist and teacher. What's more, she's a regular participant in Poetry Friday. During Poetry Friday last week, Jone took a look at category-busting Cybils nominee Where Else in the …
REVIEW
Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School
Kelly Fineman, this year's (and last year's!) Poetry category organizer, brings us today's featured review on her blog Writing and Ruminating. Kelly herself is a poet, and you'll frequently see her participating in Poetry Friday as well as writing about children's poetry and other books. Over the summer, she reviewed a book by one of our 2008 poetry panelists (who's …
NaNoWriMo
More blurby goodness
Folks, give a nice shout-out or two for our next NaNoWriMo blurber: The Beast by Samantha Wheat For a hundred years Daniel has searched for a dream seer that will allow him to find the soul of his beloved. When Daniel finds a dream seer in the form of a teenage girl he believes his searching is over, until he …
REVIEW
14 Cows for America
Franki Sibberson is a teacher, author, and co-blogger (with Mary Lee Hahn) at A Year of Reading. Franki and Mary Lee are both familiar faces at the Cybils, and this year Franki is part of our wonderfully experienced panel of Round I judges for Non-Fiction Picture Books. Recently, Franki reviewed Cybils nominee 14 Cows for America, written by Carmen Agra …
Paneling in NYC
Okay, so paneling is not exactly a verb in a way that means "a group of kidlit obsessives who natter on to an audience of strangers." But paneling we did. Betsy Bird of Fuse #8 fame moderated a discussion on kidlit blogging and the Cybils awards at the NY Public Library on Saturday. The one with the lions, though the whole building's under …
Publisher Love
In my role as Publisher Liaison, my job is to notify publishers about their Cybils nominees, finalists, and winners, to answer any questions and concerns from publishers, and to coordinate review copies from those publishers that can provide them. It's a lot of work, but it's also very rewarding to be able to give good news to publishers and experience …