It's back to book reviews! Today we're beginning a series by Round 2 judges, and all of them will be for titles on our short lists. Please note: these reviews were posted before the finalists came out and are taken from the bloggers' archives. We don't allow Round 2 judges to post new reviews of finalists in their genre during …

*Hat tip to Catherine Nichols for the title of this post, which I blatantly stole. Our panelists had the Herculean task of winnowing down a long list of nominees to this year's batch of finalists. We asked them to fight for their favorites and some of the discussions became the online equivalent of sparring matches. Very, very polite sparring matches, …

We at Cybils hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and there were lots of books under your tree or magically appearing in your Nook/Kindle/iPad or whatever. Welcome back! Today's review is of a book that's kind of a downer, so don't read on if you don't like books about Bad Things That Happen. That's a heckuva lot of YA …

I met Maureen Kearney at Kidlit Con in September and was relieved to find another 'Zonie (short for Arizonan) shivering in what Seattle calls early autumn. Maureen is another Cybils veteran and this year is judging in teen Science Fiction & Fantasy. Her regular gig is at Confessions of a Bibliovore, where she's been doing some brief roundups of the …

I was a kid when New York City had its big blackout in the 1970s. Stories of looting gave the Big Apple a big, black eye for decades. By the time a power outage hit again a few years ago, the city had returned to a more civilized, neighbor-helping-neighbor kind of place. Blackout by John RoccoHyperion Natalia Ortega-Brown reviews a …

The Brown Bookshelf is one of those blogs that I'd long hoped would send us a judge or two. It's a group blog with a strong point of view and is written with verve and conviction. It's main goal is to showcase the many quality books for children and teens by African American authors and illustrators. This year, we're thrilled …

Would you believe that "Harold and the Purple Crayon" is out in a book app for iPad? Yes, of course you would. And it's just as good as you'd imagine it to be. Mary Ann Scheuer  of Great Kid Books is our very first organizer in this brand-new category, and she had a lot of fun with that legendary purple …

Another roundup of fiction picture books for you all. Honestly, this is such a huge category that it's nice to have a bunch of quickie reviews. Today's come from Dawn Mooney at My Thoughts Exactly. This is Dawn's third year with us, all of them on fiction picture books. She's pretty excited to be back and we're just as happy …

How could anyone resist a blog called Good Books and Good Wine? Blogger April Conant writes with verve and atty-tood about the books she loves (and there are a lot of them), so much so that it earned her a berth on our tween Fantasy & Science Fiction panel. April says she's twenty-something and a feminist, is in love with …

Jeff Barger's goal at NC Teacher Stuff is to help other educators like himself find the most helpful resources for their classrooms. He's joined us this year as a judge in book apps, and his reviews help readers assess how friendly the app would be for the littlest user. In reviewing an app by the "king of science books" Seymour …