Round 2 YA Nonfiction judge Adrienne Gillespie, of the blog Books and Bassets, brings us our featured review today: finalist title Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson. This versatile author is already acclaimed for his YA fiction, and this nonfiction book (listed for the National Book Award) brings us …
REVIEW: Flutter and Hum / Aleteo y Zumbido: Animal Poems / Poemas de Animales
Today’s featured review is from the blog Rosemary’s Reading Circle, the online home of Round 2 Poetry judge Rosemary Marotta. Rosemary is a lifelong book lover, having worked in libraries, in bookstores, and at Scholastic Book Clubs, and her blog is devoted to helping parents and others find great children’s books. A few months ago, she reviewed Poetry finalist Flutter …
REVIEW: All the Rage
It seems a little strange to be co-managing this blog and not mention at least one post from my own blog, right? Well, let’s remedy that, and move on with our lives. I share a blog with wonderful fellow YA author (and Cybils judge) Tanita Davis called Finding Wonderland, where we blog about writing stuff as well as reviewing mostly …
REVIEW: The Blackthorn Key
Brandy Painter of the blog Random Musings of a Bibliophile brings us our review of today’s featured finalist: The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands. Brandy teaches grade school and high school literature and English in Tennessee, and keeps some fantastic YA and middle grade book lists (and links to reviews) on her blog. A few months ago, she reviewed The …
REVIEW: Honor Girl: A Graphic Memoir
Very rarely do we have cause or ability to reprint a blogger’s entire review of a title in our featured post…but today is one of those times. The book in question is YA Graphic Novels finalist Honor Girl: A Graphic Memoir by Maggie Thrash. The blogger in question is Emily Mitchell of Emily Reads, one of our Round 2 judges. …
REVIEW: Blizzard
Since we’re in the throes of winter (although “throes” may be debatable, depending on where you’re located), it seems fitting that today’s featured finalist review is the Fiction Picture Book title Blizzard, written and illustrated by John Rocco. Our blog review for this title was posted to Gathering Books, and was written by the blog’s founder Myra Garces-Bascal, who does …
Cybils at the ALA Youth Media Awards
I’m pretty sure you (like me) sat next to your computer (or maybe you were lucky and got to be at ALA Midwinter in Boston?) and eagerly listened to/watched the announcements of this year’s ALA Youth Media awards yesterday. It was exciting, and definitely full of surprises! As I watched the livestream, I couldn’t help but wonder how many of the books …
REVIEW: Castle Hangnail
Our featured blog review for this Monday is Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction finalist Castle Hangnail by Ursula Vernon, who is well known for her Dragonbreath series of graphic novels. This review from last spring comes from Stephanie Whelan, a New York Public Librarian who blogs at Views from the Tesseract. Stephanie, one of our Round 1 judges this year, has …
The 2015 Cybils Finalists: The Ones That Got Away
Perhaps the most difficult thing about being a Round 1 judge is letting go of your own personal favorites in order to create a finalist list. It’s a good thing: working with a panel means you get a variety of books for a diverse group of readers rather than, say, All The Books Blogger X Likes. But, there are just so many good …
The 2015 Finalists: What’s Being Said, Part 3
Over the past week, more love for the Cybils finalists have come in. Here’s a sampling of our favorites! https://t.co/DOu9IxYyDC CYBILS Finalist List. So thrilled to see Picture Perfect here. pic.twitter.com/CXuSlvA072 — Jacqueline Jules (@jacquelinejules) January 3, 2016 Hooray! So happy to see SOFIA on this list @Kimdraws. Also, RANGER! @KateMessner @literaticat https://t.co/ykqsb36s0z — Kelly Sonnack (@KSonnack) January 3, 2016 …