The winners of the 2013 Cybils Awards will be announced next Friday, on Valentine's Day. Our Round 2 panelists are hard at work. Each panel will select what they believe is the best-written, most kid-friendly title out of the choices on their shortlist. For your reference, here are links to the full shortlists: Elementary & Middle Grade Book Apps Fiction …
The Cybils Finalists Are Coming!
Good news! The Cybils shortlists will be announced the day after tomorrow, on New Year's Day! The shortlists are blogger-vetted, kid-friendly, well-written lists of 5 to 7 titles in all 11 categories (some with sub-categories). That means that a whole host of great book and app recommendations will be coming your way to start the new year. In the meantime, …
Shop Cybils for Black Friday!
Well, okay, you can shop Cybils any time. We don't mind. But if you're already doing some online shopping, why not earn the Cybils a teensy bit of affiliate income by clicking on ANY of our book links to Amazon? As long as you start your shopping by clicking here, you can buy books, appliances, TVs, luxury cars, whatever you …
Register Now for KIDLITCON!
Here at the Cybils organization, we are big fans of the Kidlitosphere Conference (aka KidLitCon). KidLitCon is an annual conference for children's and young adult book bloggers (though anyone is welcome). KidLitCon is a much smaller conference than, say ALA or BEA. There are usually a few bookish giveaways, and a book exchange, but the focus of KidLitCon is not …
Happy Birthday, Sheila!
It's Sheila Ruth's birthday today, so leave your well wishes in the comments. This contest wouldn't get off the ground every year without Sheila's hard work and dedication. Without her fabulous database, her publishing contacts, her work ethic and literary mojo, this would just be another cool blog about books that got updated once in a while. So tell her …
Meet the Organizers: Charlotte Taylor, MG Speculative Fiction
Charlotte Taylor is a professional archaeologist, mother of two boys,and president of her local library's Friends group. She has been an avid reader of children's fantasy and science fiction books for decades, and has been blogging about them at Charlotte's Library since February 2007. In her eighth-grade yearbook she's identified as the person "most likely to write a book in …
A Temporary Au Revoir, and an Introduction
It's that time of year again–that time when the Cybils organizing crew starts working on planning the upcoming contest, and the blog starts to become more active again. This year, that means I'm bowing out for the time being, as I did a couple of years ago, because I have a YA novel eligible for the contest. So long, farewell, …
48-Hour Book Challenge
Our own Pam "MotherReader" Coughlan is taking a well-deserved rest this year from hosting the 48-Hour Book Challenge–handing it off for the nonce to Karen "Ms." Yingling, also a familiar face around the Cybils, and this past year's Middle Grade Fiction Chair. In case you've never heard of the 48-Hour Book Challenge, what it is, in essence, is a fun …
Marilyn Singer Q&A
It's National Poetry Month, and we've got a treat of a link for you to click today. Check out the Horn Book's interview with 2010 Cybils-winning author Marilyn Singer, in which she talks about her book Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse (the title that won the Cybil award for Poetry in 2010) as well as an upcoming companion …
Keeping the Cybils Ball Rolling
We've already gotten a few enthusiastic e-mails and such suggesting nominations for next year, and we couldn't be happier that y'all are so proactive. BUT! Please remember that nominations officially open in October–we can't do anything about it at the moment. So please make a note of your favorites so you can tune in this fall and nominate them! There …