It seems like only yesterday, but way back in April, we announced that we were tweaking some of our processes for the 2024 Awards cycle. At the top of the list: Give judges more time for reading. Having time to find, read, and discuss all the books is something judges ask for year in and year out. To accommodate their …
#CYBILS Book Playlist: CEMETERY BOYS by Aiden Thomas
CEMETERY BOYS By Aiden Thomas Swoon Reads Young Adult Contemporary, Family, Folklore, LGBTQ+, Romance, Urban Fantasy Winner – Young Adult Speculative Fiction 2020 CYBILS Awards The Book Deeply steeped in Latinx culture and folklore, Cemetery Boys weaves magic, identity, and family birthright into a compelling coming of age story. When his family bans him from performing the ritual that would …
Book Playlist: MEET THE BEARS by Kate Peridot a #CYBILS 📚🎶
MEET THE BEARS By Kate Peridot Illustrated by Becca Hall Welbeck Children’s Elementary Animals, Children’s, Nonfiction, Zoology Finalist – Elementary Nonfiction 2023 CYBILS Awards The Book Be ready to go on a reading adventure with this book! Meet the Bears is an easily accessible picture book packed with beautiful illustrations and valuable information about eight different species of bears, displayed in a …
FRIZZY by Claribel A. Ortega a #CYBILS 📚🎶
FRIZZY By Claribel A. Ortega Illustrated by Rose Bousamra First Second Books Middle Grade Contemporary, Family, Growing Up, Realistic Fiction Finalist – Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novels 2023 CYBILS Awards The Book Frizzy by Claribel Ortega is an exploration of cultural expectations connected to hair and respectability. Marlene loves art and hanging out with her best friend. But she does not …
Now Calling: #CYBILS2024 Early Call for Judges
Welcome to our second annual summer call for judges! For many of us, summer means reading for fun, because, well, we have more time to read. Experienced Cybilites often use this time to read as many books as they can in the categories they love. The summer reading period is a great way to share what you love with other …
Summer is coming … and so is #CYBILS2024
This year, Memorial Day is more than the unofficial start of summer, it is also the unofficial start of the 2024 CYBILS Awards. In just a few days we will be launching the start of #CYBILS2024. Last year we tested a Summer Reading Period as a way to allow people to see what being a CYBILS Awards judge is like …
The 4-1-1 on the 2024 CYBILS Awards
A few weeks ago, we shared three goals that our Board set for its 2024 agenda. In this post we identified several that relate to changes in our award. With the 2024 CYBILS Awards season starting soon, we want to share more detail about several of those changes. Objective: Improve book access and reading volume issues Year in and year …
BIG by Vashti Harrison a #CYBILS 📚🎶
BIG By Vashti Harrison Little, Brown Books for Young Readers All Ages African American, Emotion, Mental Health, Realistic Fiction, Storytime Winner – Fiction Picture Book 2023 CYBILS Awards The Book Big by Vashti Harrison is a stunning picture book that explores the meaning of being big in a world that often values small. The story follows a young girl …
Spring Forward with these #CYBILS2024 Nomination-eligible Books
Over the last five months we posted review exerpts for more than 450 books nominated or submitted for the 2023 CYBILS Awards. All told, we shared reviews from our judges for more than one-third of the books considered for our 2023 awards. Not an all-time high, but pretty durned good. Look for more #CYBILS2023 titles in future booklists. In the …
LONG WAY DOWN by Jason Reynolds a #CYBILS 📚🎶
LONG WAY DOWN By Jason Reynolds Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books Poetry young adult, family, ghost stories, realistic fiction CW: violence Winner – Poetry 2018 CYBILS Awards The Book Long Way Down is a tour de force work of poetry. The entire novel in verse takes place on an elevator ride as a young man whose brother has been shot and killed …