At Farm School, Becky writes about "family, books, food, classical home education, books, journeys, music, books, thoughts, movies, and books." She shares details of her family’s life on a farm in Canada, and her experiences in reading with and homeschooling her three elementary school-age children. Becky also writes well-researched posts about topics like adding poetry to your life, the importance …
REVIEW: Penguin by Polly Dunbar
Cheryl Rainfield, a member of the Fiction Picture Book nominating panel, is always looking for the good in children’s books. Cheryl keeps two sets of booklists on her site–one devoted to picture books and the other to Young Adult books–and one book blog. She’s a reviewing machine! Recently she considered Cybils-nominated picture book Penguin, by Polly Dunbar, and here’s her …
REVIEW: Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos by R.L. LaFevers
Traci, who blogs at Fields of Gold, is one of the youngest bloggers working for the Cybils. At just fifteen years old, Traci likes acting, singing, dancing, and reading. Good thing she likes to read. She’s serving on the nominating panel for one of our biggest categories–Fantasy/Science Fiction. Recently Traci read Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, by R.L. LaFevers, …
REVIEW: Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
K.T. Horning is a librarian and a children’s & young adult literature specialist. She blogs about LGBTQ books for kids and teens at Worth the Trip. She publishes detailed, thoughtful book reviews, and maintains links to external resources of particular interest to her target audience. K.T. is a member of the middle grade and young adult non-fiction nominating committe. In …
REVIEW: When Gorilla Goes Walking by Nikki Grimes
Cloudscome blogs over at A Wrung Sponge and is a poetry fanatic. A librarian and a regular Poetry Friday contributor, Cloudscome is also a dab hand at the haiku. Luckily for the Cybils, Cloudscome is serving as a judge on the Poetry Committee this year. Today, she shares her review of the 2007 Cybils nominated title, When Gorilla Goes Walking, …
REVIEW: Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet illustrated by Sonia Long
Mary Lee has featured some great Cybils-nominated titles on her blog A Year of Reading–for many of them, such as Graphic Novel nominee Manga Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, she provides a teacher’s perspective on a book that could well spark newfound interest in a tried-and-true classic. "It is what the title says it is: Romeo and Juliet in manga. The …
REVIEW: The Secret of Priest’s Grotto by Peter Lane Taylor with Christos Nicola
Today’s selection is a non-fiction book that splits between the present day and the Holocaust, between well-equipped spelunkers and three desperate Jewish families. What they share between them, across time and circumstance, is a secret cave in the Ukraine. Mindy from Propernoun takes us there in her gripping review of The Secret of Priest’s Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story: The …
REVIEW: Dragon’s Keep by Janet Lee Carey
Many of us old timers in the blogging world remember when it was just Tasha Saecker and … well, it was just Tasha Saecker. Back in the early days of ’03, her Kids Lit blog was pretty much the only one of its kind. She’s said if she knew what crazy names we’d all be giving our online journals, she’d …
REVIEW: Mama’s Saris by Pooja Makhijani
Hey, wanna have a cuppa joe with Andrea and Mark over at Just One More Book? That’s what it feels like when you listen in on their podcasts; you can even make out the cappuccino maker sputtering in the background as they sit in their favorite cafe and gab about kids’ books. They both loved Mama’s Saris, about a young …
REVIEW: Louisiana’s Song by Kerry Madden
If I post at Bildungsroman about a series, you can bet you’ll read the phrase, "Read the books in order," followed by a list of titles. Louisiana’s Song by Kerry Madden is the second book in a trilogy about a big family growing up in North Carolina. Unlike many middle books in trilogies, this book can stand on its own …
