The Jean Little Library is the personal library of Jennifer Wharton, a youth services librarian at a small public library in Wisconsin. Jennifer is one of our panelists this year for Easy Readers and Short Chapter Books, and she blogs not only at Check It Out @MML but also provides insightful book reviews and other helpful resources via her blog for the Jean Little Library.
Recently, Jennifer reviewed Cybils nominee Alice's Shooting Star, the latest in a series by Tim Kennemore following the tribulations and adventures of middle child Alice. This latest volume shows Alice dealing with her imaginative little sister, Rosie, and figuring out where she herself fits into her family. More than that, it's just plain funny:
From Rosie's insane stories, to Oliver's ridiculous sulks, to the final laugh-out-loud catastrophe, this book will keep the reader giggling all the way through.
Read the first line and take a closer look at the book here.
Sarah Woodard of Sarah's Random Musings is our featured blogger for today, and if you're a fan of YA book reviews and interviews with authors, you'll definitely want to cruise by her virtual home. Sarah is an aspiring writer and high school student in Washington State, and some of her favorite YA authors include John Green, Meg Cabot, and Melina Marchetta.
Another of Sarah's favorites is Sarah Dessen, author of Cybils YA nominee Along for the Ride. Narrator Auden is spending the summer with her father and stepfamily, but is still dealing with the ramifications of her parents' divorce and the fact that she'll be starting college in the fall. Dessen tackles these themes with her usual delicacy and heart. Says Sarah Woodard:
One of the best thing about her novels are the lively characters. Auden is looking for the approval of her parents and has missed out on her childhood because of this.
Click here for the full review.
Jone MacCulloch is our Non-Fiction Picture Books category organizer this year, and at her blog Check It Out, she looks at books from the perspective of a K-5 school library media specialist and teacher. What's more, she's a regular participant in Poetry Friday.
During Poetry Friday last week, Jone took a look at category-busting Cybils nominee Where Else in the Wild? by David M. Schwarz, Yael Schy and Dwight Kuhn. It's a nominee in NFPB, but it combines the poetry form with fabulous non-fiction facts about creatures and delightful photography. Jone says:
The photos are stunning, the poems fun, and the facts informative. Put them all together and readers of all ages will be coming back again and again.
Read some excerpts and the full review here.
Kelly Fineman, this year's (and last year's!) Poetry category organizer, brings us today's featured review on her blog Writing and Ruminating. Kelly herself is a poet, and you'll frequently see her participating in Poetry Friday as well as writing about children's poetry and other books.
Over the summer, she reviewed a book by one of our 2008 poetry panelists (who's also a frequent participant in Poetry Friday and other kidlitosphere poetry activities), Laura Purdie Salas' Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School, illustrated by Steven Salerno. Poems about individual children and groups of children at school bring out the "animal" side of going to class and interacting with other kids. Kelly says:
Laura's work is clever, creative and playful. It includes poems about groups of children (e.g., "Swarm", which likens the buzz of conversation to a swarm of bees or "Stampede", which compares the thundering of kids heading for the exit at day's end to a herd of elephants) as well as poems about individuals - usually in uncomfortable situations that most kids can relate to.
Click here for the full review.
Franki Sibberson is a teacher, author, and co-blogger (with Mary Lee Hahn) at A Year of Reading. Franki and Mary Lee are both familiar faces at the Cybils, and this year Franki is part of our wonderfully experienced panel of Round I judges for Non-Fiction Picture Books.
Recently, Franki reviewed Cybils nominee 14 Cows for America, written by Carmen Agra Deedy and illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez. This picture book about a gift from the Maasai people to the citizens of America in the wake of the 9/11 disaster exemplifies the themes of empathy and generosity. Franki had a chance to speak with the illustrator about his work, and found out the following:
Tom said that for him this story is about far more than just 9/11. This story says that no matter how powerful you are, unexpected circumstances can come out of nowhere and totally change everything...and that help often comes from people you don't know. For Tom, this book is about the connectedness of all people.
Read the rest of the review and learn more about the illustrator here.
Okay, so paneling is not exactly a verb in a way that means "a group of kidlit obsessives who natter on to an audience of strangers."
But paneling we did. Betsy Bird of Fuse #8 fame moderated a discussion on kidlit blogging and the Cybils awards at the NY Public Library on Saturday. The one with the lions, though the whole building's under wraps for renovation. So, no lions.
Participants: Betsy, me, Pam, Susan, Liz B.
Some highlights:
The audience wanted to see all of the nominated titles include links to reviews by our panelists. That's up, according to Sheila. Thanks for getting on it so fast!
I made a pitch for ideas for funding. I got several, but I'll ask readers too. Ideas and links for grants, sponsorships, financial backing? Send 'em my way or comment below. I wouldn't partner with, say, a publishing house for the obvious conflict of interest, but there's a whole lot of organizations that would be thrilled to have quality content with a devoted, target audience with a history of buying stuff. I just have no idea who they are.
We discussed the growing power of the bloggers to bloody a publisher's nose. Pam related how bloggers reacted to the proposed cover of "Liars," which depicted the African-American protagonist as white. She summed up the firestorm it caused and the publisher's decision to change the cover image in time for publication.
Ethics and stuff -- we decided this was very important. I gave my famous spiel about transparency, quality, etc. I kept watching this one woman nod off and briefly panicked until I realized she was a vagrant and probably just looking for a warm place to snooze.
In particular, we discussed getting free stuff from publishers and what you owe them in return, the new FTC rule about aforementioned free stuff, and whether a negative review is a punch in the stomach to your new sugar daddies in the publishing world. Though not in such colorful language.
We had so much fun, we're thinking of repeating this another time. I'm looking into whether BEA will put up with us.
More later,
Anne Levy, Cybils Yakker-in-Chief
P.S. Here's another, less flattering take on the discussion from an audience member. You can't please everybody.
Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews is no stranger to the Cybils, and this year she's a round I judge for the Middle Grade Fiction category. Her book review blog has been going for over three years, looking at children's, MG, YA, and adult books and hosting numerous fun reading challenges as well as author interviews.
Becky reviewed one of our MG fiction nominees that was published in late 2008--too late for the 2008 Cybils contest, but eligible this year. That book is Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson, a historical novel about Isabel and Ruth, two slaves freed in their recently deceased master's will. However, their master's nephew ignores the decree of freedom and sells them to an unscrupulous Loyalist family in New York City. Nevertheless, Isabel, the book's narrator, still dreams of freedom. Says Becky:
Set in New York City during circa 1776-1777, the story is vibrant and heartbreaking. It's a story rich in detail and emotional and powerful in nature. Isobel's story--her struggles--resonates so deeply that I think this one is a must-read.
Read the full review here.
Yeesh, it feels a little weird to be posting about one of my own reviews! I assure you, it really isn't shameless self-promotion; rather, I wanted to post about a graphic novel for teens, since I'm on the judging panel for this year's Graphic Novels category. We post about graphic novels as well as other fiction for YA and MG audiences over at Finding Wonderland (where I blog with author and Cybils SFF panelist Tanita Davis), and this summer I had the opportunity to read one of the nominees.
The Color of Earth by Kim Dong Hwa is the first book in a trilogy that follows the coming of age of Ehwa, a young girl in rural Korea, and her relationship with her single mother. It's also the mother's story, though, and the story of both of them exploring romantic love, one for the first time, and one revisiting it after a period of loneliness. It was written as a tribute to the author's own mother:
The artwork reflects this, illustrating with sensitivity and vividness, remaining simple and expressive throughout, yet unafraid to add flourishes and whole spreads rendered in exquisite detail when called for by the storytelling.
Click here for the full review.
Today's featured blogger, Fantasy/Science Fiction Round I panelist Charlotte Taylor, describes herself as "archaeologist by day, president of the Friends of a small New England library by night." She blogs at Charlotte's Library, posting about (what else?) sci-fi and fantasy for YA and middle-grade readers as well as other children's and YA books.
Last year, Sarah Prineas's book The Magic Thief was a finalist in the Elementary/Middle Grade Fantasy/Sci-Fi category. This year, the sequel--The Magic Thief: Lost--has been nominated, and Charlotte took a good look at it on her blog to see if it measured up to the enjoyable first volume. In short, the answer is yes. Charlotte says:
[I]t's hard for me to imagine the fantasy-reading middle schooler who would not enjoy this series, and it makes great escapist pleasure reading for older readers too.
Read the full review here.
Easy Readers and Short Chapter Books panelist Terry Doherty is well-known around the kidlitosphere, not just for her literacy efforts at Scrub-a-Dub Tub and Share a Story-Shape a Future, but also for her thorough and informative blog reviews at The Reading Tub.
One of her recent reviews looked at Cybils nominee Roscoe Riley Rules #7: Never Race a Runaway Pumpkin, written by Katherine Applegate and illustrated by Brian Biggs. This installment in the series about first-grader Roscoe Riley is funny and action-packed as well as informative, as he tries to win a contest by guessing the weight of a giant pumpkin. In her review, Terry writes:
The author does a wonderful job layering lots of information - from numbers and math, to facts about pumpkins, to life as a first grader! She did a great job explaining superstitions.
Click here to read the rest of the review.
At her blog Write for a Reader, Fiction Picture Books panelist Shelly Burns posts a wide assortment of reviews of children's and YA books, book contests, blog tour stops, articles by guest bloggers, and content geared toward adult readers. What's more, she tweets! How could we turn away such an energetic panelist?
Earlier this year, Shelly blogged about one of our Fiction Picture Book nominees, rather simply titled A Book by Mordicai Gerstein. Certainly more than just "a book," it tells the story of a family who lives in a book. Every family member but the youngest girl has their own exciting story to inhabit, so she goes searching through the book for her own story. Shelly says:
The youngsters will love the vivid illustrations while the older children will be able to pick out the subtleties that the author includes.
Read the full review here.
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