We’re your hosts, Kelly and Anne. Kelly’s the one in the shimmery gown; Anne talks over the music cues. This is our second year handing out awards to books meant for kids and teens, which must say something about our reading tastes. At least, we hope it does. We have some help: like last year, we’ve conscripted a bunch of …

Wanted: Nice bloggers who wish to give up any semblance of a personal life to help us select 2007 Cybils winners. We go through two rounds of judging, so we need lots of bodies. Rules for volunteering are more persnickety than the rest of the contest, since there’s a mountain of books awaiting you and we need to know you’re …

Please everyone go congratulate one of our organizers, Chris at Bartography, for selling his second book to Little, Brown. For now, he’s cryptically calling it S.V.T. We wish him the best and look forward to its publication (and learning its real title!). Here’s the link again.

On the day we announced the Cybils finalists, Jen Robinson called on everyone to buy copies of the winners from Amazon, while Sheila Ruth charted whether the books rose in popularity. Did we make a difference? Can we add "marketplace clout" to our list of accomplishments? The answer is a qualified yes. We affected the sales rankings, sometimes dramatically, for …

We plan to publish the winners today at 2 p.m. Chicago time, so you have just enough time to treat yourself to a fabulous lunch before rejoining us. See you again soon.

It’s 1:37 a.m. and once again the insomnia genie has cursed me. I get three wishes that won’t come true, and all of them involve being able to shut my eyes. So I thought I’d update you all on how Cybils is going. We still haven’t received the absolute, final, this-is-really-it decision from two categories, but I’m not going to …

I’d like to thank whoever ordered the gluten-free baking flour. I have a brother who’s allergic to wheat, so I empathize. And the person who bought an Epson printer for Christmas–I hope it’s treating you right. You rock.  Hey, remember the sitcom "Soap"? It’s still tickling someone’s funny bone out there in Cybils land. But he or she can’t compare …

Many thanks to Liz for the great article in the School Library Journal e-newsletter about our awards. Our hits are through the roof! And a hearty welcome to SLJ subscribers landing here for the first time. Some quick links for you: Here’s the shortcut to our short lists. And here’s the index to our long lists, which many librarians are …

Most awards competitions make you wait until their final announcement to discover the winner, leading to all sorts of speculation. Not us! We’re going to torture you first. The organizers have given status reports on our tippy-top-secret Yahoo! group, where we hold important discussions about books, make up new rules to contradict the old rules and snicker about what you’re …

Franki Sibberson weeded through 111 picture books to help us find the five best. She writes about her experience as a panelist at Choice Literacy and links to us here. Thanks for the nice press, Franki! We’re glad you enjoyed the experience. As a judge in this same category, I get to pick up where Franki left off. It’s great …