Welcome to the first installment of a three-part series of posts we're calling The Inside Scoop. Aren't you curious what the category organizers thought about this year's crop of Cybils nominees? I know I am, so I asked them to provide a quick blurb about the process so far: their impressions of the group of nominated titles, anything that stood …

Tasha Saecker, who blogs at Kids Lit, is not only a Round II Judge in Fantasy and Science Fiction, but was also the category organizer last year. Her blog is a familiar fixture to many of us kidlitosphere "old-timers," who enjoy reading her impressions of kids' and YA books from the perspective of a longtime children's librarian and public library …

If you're over a certain age, the title Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs brings back memories of the unforgettably-illustrated children's classic, but it also happens to be the blog of Amanda Blau, one of our Round II Judges for the Easy Readers and Short Chapter Books category. Amanda is a children's librarian in the Chicago area who posts reviews …

We're getting back to posting reviews here on the Cybils blog, while the judges are busy poring over the lists of finalists–but just so you know, we're ONLY posting reviews that were written prior to the judging period. Today's finalist review comes from GN Round I panelist Nicola at Back to Books. Middle Grade Graphic Novel finalist The Secret Science …

Amanda Snow of A Patchwork of Books is a repeat Cybils panelist, and this year she's a Round I judge for the Young Adult Fiction category. Amanda is a children's librarian in Virginia who reviews all genres of children's books (and even some adult books) on her blog. Cybils YA nominee Shine, Coconut Moon by Neesha Meminger was featured on …

I can hardly believe that we haven't yet featured our tireless Fiction Picture Books category organizer yet, in our series of reviews by Cybils bloggers, but evidently it's true. Pam Coughlan, aka Mother Reader, is hilarious, energetic, and well-known around the kidlitosphere for her fun recurring blog features like the 48-Hour Book Challenge and Bloggers Against Celebrity Authors. Earlier this …

A very merry Cybils Christmas and…er…Writerly Winter Solstice to you all! We've queued up this appropriately seasonal post for you and scheduled it to go up; meanwhile, we're probably still nestled all snug in our beds (at least, those of us on the West Coast), visions of tasty holiday treats and a lazy day on the couch dancing in our …

The Miss Rumphius Effect is a fixture of the kidlitosphere. It's where Tricia Stohr-Hunt blogs about poetry and non-fiction for young readers and maintains an impressive array of thematic book lists–check out her list of books about snow and snowflakes for some wintry (but heartwarming) seasonal reads. Tricia, a round I panelist for Poetry, reviewed Cybils nominee Spot the Plot: …

Biblio File is the blog of Middle Grade/YA Non-Fiction panelist Jennie Rothschild, a children's librarian at a public library who loves to read and review both children's and YA books. On her post entitled "Why I Blog," she noted that she values the conversation and sense of community in the kidlitosphere–something I think we can all relate to. In a …