Cybils

The 2011 Cybils Awards

Greetings, fellow bookworms. Our sixth season culminates with a new list of our favorite books of 2011, the ones that kids couldn't put down and adults couldn't refuse. We don't want Mom frowning or the Librarian to catch any flak, after all. One way to look at the Cybils is that instead of telling kids what we think they should be reading, we take a look at what they already are reading (or likely will read) -- and then pick out the best of them.

And that brings us to this year's winners. If you're an author or an illustrator and you spot your name on this list, don't forget we have shiny gold stickers now and a fancy logo for you.

For everyone else, get ready to update your "To Be Read" pile.

Awww ...

Mo Willems sometimes does a little doodle when he wins a Cybils. Here's his latest. Is this total cuteness or what?

Cybils ends tonight!

The moment is almost here. Instead of editing the blurbs for the winning titles, I spent my last day of the 2011-12 Cybils season in a courtroom filling out a jury questionnaire. I did my civic duty and am now free to finish the post, which goes up at one minute after midnight my time. Arizona exists in a parallel universe with a slipstream time current (I'm not really sure what that means, but it sounds good), so that's 2 a.m. on the East Coast and 11 p.m. for the West Coast.

We'll be announcing winners in all eleven genres, including the brand-spanking-new Book Apps. Join us tonight for The Big Reveal.

Cheers,

Anne Levy, Cybils Admin.

A mountain of fountain pens

This was the scene in my living room the other week as I finally sent out a huge batch of fountain pens for the 2009 Cybils. Yes, you read that right, the 2009 awards just went out.

There were various reasons for the delays: I still don't even have all the addresses I need. The 2010 awards are next and fundraising woes have kept me from even ordering those awards. I have enough for 2010 now, but not for 2011.

Plus, I have the organizational skills of a cyclone, which is to say that things get messier for my having been around.

Even so, I felt a sense of triumph at my little tower the other week. I got some nice thank yous from the winning authors too. Hopefully, I'll get the remainder out before they all retire.

-Anne Levy, Cybils Admin.

 

Welcome, Scottsdale Business + Life

If you're coming here from Scottsdale Business + Life magazine, welcome aboard! I'm grateful to editor Elizabeth Hughes for her flattering profile of me. (See page 22.) Please feel free to learn more about us, whether you're visiting us for business or pleasure.

As for our regular readers ... squeee! I've been profiled in a magazine. Enjoy!

Monday Monday

Not my favorite day of the week. I've already made one boo-boo. I was deleting comment spam (how much do I hate those people? Honestly, if you want to peddle your knock-off Uggs, buy a freaking ad!) and I accidentally deleted a legitimate comment. If it's yours, please repost it. Sorry!

Also, our fabulous teen nonfiction organizer, Gina Ruiz, is leading an effort to try and get the Tucson school board to reintroduce books that were banned as part of an effort to end ethnic studies statewide. Yes, my proud state is up to its silly tricks again. Gina explains it better. However, it's not part of the SB 1070 anti-immigration statute, but grows out of the same illogic and fearmongering that led to the bill's passage.

Gina's also compiling a list of books banned in Tucson and has a petition to sign.

Update: Here is an article explaining the controversy.

Update II: Gina gets a mention in The Nation.

Review Feynman by Jim Ottaviani

I've never met David Elzey at Guys Lit Wire, but he must be one hunk of a blogger. Every year, and I mean every year, I break up fights among my (all-female) organizers over him. I saw him first! You had him last year! MEOW. Then there was the year two organizers duked it out while a third went behind their backs to nab him.

So, is this the George Clooney of book geeks? Who is this guy?

Well, he happens to run one of the few group blogs that caters primarily to what teen boys read. He writes spellbinding essays on how to write for boys. And he writes reviews of books that are page-turners (pixel turners?) all by themselves.

Feynman
by Jim Ottaviani
First Second Books

Elzey's take on Feynman, a graphic novel for teens, gets in your face about why it really shouldn't be as captivating a book as it is. It's about a physicist, for Einstein's sake. And then he heartily piles on what's so amazing about the Manhattan Project member who went on to solve the mystery of why the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded and who apparently could crack safes and play some mean Brazilian drums:

The joy of reading about the life of physicist Richard Feynman, in any format, is that he was the original out-of-the-box thinker. He retained his child-like sense of wonder and his desire to figure things out and applied them to science the same way that artists and writers apply them to their craft. Following the unconventional and peripatetic life of an unconventional thinker provides an fascinating example of the rewards that come from following your dreams in any field. That Feynman had a sense of humor to match his sense of wonder is a bonus, and despite his preference for research over lecturing he was nonetheless brilliant showman.

Read the rest here.

Review The Shattering by Karen Healey

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 the six-week judging period. That way we preserve the secrecy, suspense and overall credibility of the awards (I hope).

Enough of the disclaimer stuff. Onto the review:

The Shattering
by Karen Healey
Little, Brown

We're starting in my favorite genre, teen fantasy and science fiction. Sam Musher over at Parenthetical took an in-depth look at Karen Healey's The Shattering. Healey made our short list last year with Guardian of the Dead. This one's also set in New Zealand in contemporary times.

The protagonist, Keri, is devastated by her older brother's suicide. Then she learns of other suicides by teenage boys over the span of a decade. She teams up with two friends to solve the strange deaths before another can occur.

Sam sums up what makes Healey's books so appealing (caution, mild spoilers):

... believable, flawed friendships between fully realized characters; sensitive handling of sex (and the lack thereof); a stunning sense of place. The magic felt a bit less organic here than in Guardian and required more suspension of disbelief for some reason; I kept waiting for a twist, that it wasn’t what the kids thought, but nope — it pretty much was, and was an idea we’ve all seen before, and therefore had something of a “Buffy monster-of-the-week” feel, like with established characters all of this could have happened in 50 minutes on TV.

Read the rest here.

A few more

Author reactions are still trickling in as they get word they made the Cybils finals. Here's the original post on that. Add to that Stephanie Perkins typing a giant Eeeeep! after learning Anna and the French Kiss was shortlisted in Young Adult Fiction:

Oh, man! This is the biggest honor that Anna has received, and I couldn't be more over-the-moon.

And believe it or not, an author left  a comment here too. I think this is a first for us. Here's Tim Egan, whose Dodsworth in Rome is on our Easy Readers short list:

I'm so thrilled to have Dodsworth as a Cybil's finalist! Thank you so, so much! What a great way to start the new year!!!

I'll post more as I find them.

The ones that got away*

*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, I'm sure, given that we're mostly introverts and aggression isn't quite our thing.

But it's still pretty bruising if you were hoping to push a book to the top and it failed to build a consensus or you were flatly outvoted. Whatever the reason, many panelists couldn't let these books go. I asked that if anyone blogged about titles that deserved a last, Cybils-led hurrah, to let me know. I have listed all of the blogs below.

I hope you'll browse the links and find a few more gems that had at least one vocal supporter, even if it wasn't enough to put them over the top for Cybils.

Easy Readers/Early Chapter Books

The Cath in the Hat picked Nick Bruel's Bad Kitty Meets the Baby and several others at a post with links to her original reviews.

Fantasy/Science Fiction

Charlotte's Library gives us four tween fantasy and science fiction choices she would've loved to have seen on our short list.

Over at Confessions of a Bibliovere there are two choices that didn't make the final cut for teen fantasy.

Fiction Picture Books

We were lucky to have two judges from 5 Minutes for Books, but they did one post for their runners-up. Scroll down for Dawn's picks for Fiction Picture Books.

Graphic Novels

Guerilla Librarian recommends Ozma of Oz, an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's novels.

Everead tapped Around the World by Matt Phelan and posted a review.

Middle Grade Fiction

Sharp Read provides links to his Top Ten for last year, many of which made our finals.   

And here's that link again for 5 Minutes for Books to get Jennifer's picks in this genre.

Nonfiction Picture Books

Jean Little Library usually does a batch reviews of Cybils nominees at one go, so she emailed me to point out specific titles from two posts. In this first post, scroll down to An Edible Alphabet for her pick for also-ran. In this one, her review of The Guardian Team is at the top.

RIFfing with Cybils

I'm a big fan of Reading is Fundamental, and not just because I've met leader Carol Rasco and she's as amazing as you'd expect. She's one part missionary, one part Southern Belle and about 50 parts Energizer Bunny. RIF puts books in the hands of kids who really need them, kids like me when I was wee. I have some happy memories of the bookmobiles they no longer do (when I am Queen of the Universe, I will have to fix this. I picture fleets of bookmobiles for every corner of the globe).

But I'm not queen of anything. Even the dust bunnies smirk at my feeble attempts to coax them from under the sofa. But Carol and RIF need our help and I'm determined to give this a try. RIF lost all its federal funding and now must rely 100% on donations. I'm not in a position to write a check but they're more than happy to accept gently used books.

Which brings me to my new project: RIFfing with Cybils

Here's how it works: If you were a Round 1 panelist, you probably have a few review copies that have stacked up. Need a place to donate them? Here's an interactive map with RIF offices around the country. Find the one nearest you and if it's convenient, drop off a load of gently used books.

If you don't live nearby but can afford fourth class postage, they're happy to accept your donations any way they can get them. Or have a friend who commutes to the area drop them off. Make a special trip one day. Or round up books from friends and all of you split the media mail postage. The donations are tax deductible, of course.

I'll be reminding us all once a week about this. Please email me at anne (at) inlandempress (dot) com if you do participate and I'll be sure to list you and the RIF office to which you donated (but not the total number of books -- unless you'd like to add that. Some people don't want their donations detailed and I totally respect that).

If you're not a Round 1 judge or any sort of judge and you'd just like to help a great cause, feel free! I'll list you too when I do our roundup of donors.

I'm going to keep on this folks, so you'd better get busy. I want to hear some good news from bloggers around the country that you're busy packing up those gently used books for a generation of kids who are going without.

Charitably,

Anne Levy, Cybils Admin.

Stuff that makes me cry

I am a sentimental fool. I just am. I refuse to cry at funerals because I think I should be all stoic, even when my heart is breaking. But when I hear the words "thank you," I start to sob all over myself. It's embarrassing. Who does this to be thanked? Not me. I do it to fill up the free months between July and March.

Anyway. I asked my organizers for feedback from around the Internet from authors and publishers as they got the news they'd made the Cybils finals. I wasn't even through the third or fourth tweet when the waterworks began.

Take this blog post from the only author of a born-digital, self-published book to ever make our shortlists:

There's something about this whole thing that makes me feel rather giddy and punky—like I'm getting away with something I'm not supposed to. :) No matter what happens, I feel like Angelfall has already won just by making it to the finalist list against all odds.  --Susan Ee, Angelfall

Consider that accepting such titles was a total experiment for us this year and you realize just how long Susan's odds were. I like that Cybils plays against type and considers books that wouldn't get a second glance elsewhere.

Many posts and tweets were like Carmen Deedy's, who thanked us, the person who nominated The Cheshire Cheese Cat (in tween fantasy) and even one of her reviewers.

The folks in book publishing weren't back from their holiday break when we posted our finalists, so Peachtree Publishing didn't tweet their good news until Wednesday that they'd nabbed three spots on the short lists. Not to be outdone, Little, Brown squeezed into a single tweet the titles of their four finalists.

My favorite tweets are the ones that clearly indicate the author had no idea to expect a big surprise to start his or her new year. Something like this one from Stephanie Perkins:

I'm thrilled to wake up in the new year and discover that ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS is a Cybils award finalist!

Lisa Yee's another one we caught napping on New Year's Day. She calls her blog post "The Cybils, the Dreamers and Me" which Muppet lovers like me instantly recognize. Okay, so Kermit sang about rainbows. It's pretty much the same thing, right?

Then there's Mo Willems, who seems pleased no matter how many times he finds himself on our short lists:

Hey, looks like Elephant & Piggie's I BROKE MY TRUNK! is a Cybils' finalist: http://ow.ly/8fCXL Thanks web-savvy-kids-books-enthusiasts!

What's nice about Mo's support is that he really seems to get us. Web savvy. Check. Book enthusiasts. Check!

I just started reading Holly Black's Red Glove as a Round 2 judge and was pleased to see her gracious reaction, typical of many authors:

I am so excited to be on the Cybils shortlist for sf/f, especially because I LOVE all the other books on it.

Now, if that doesn't make an overlord all ferklempt, what does? There are many, many more of course: Geoff Herbach tweeted he was "psyched" and surprised to see his Stupid Fast shortlisted in YA fiction. Rae Carson says "holy wow" and thanks panelists for voting for Girl of Fire and Thorns in teen fantasy.

So. Now you know why we all do this. We do it for kids and teens and their teachers, librarians and parents. We don't necessarily do it for the authors, since there were more than 1,200 of them this year and we can't make them all happy. But when we do ... wow. What fun.

And who doesn't love a good cry?

Big hugs ...

... to all our hard-working panelists, who slaved these last few months to plow through more than 1,200 books. You folks are amazing! Cybils couldn't exist without all of you. I know your own blogs suffered, so here's a little something I'd like to do for all of you.

If you were a Round 1 judge this year, I bet you have  few favorites that didn't quite make the short list. Maybe others didn't agree with you or you couldn't quite make your voice heard above the online din. If you blog about which book or two (or three) was a personal favorite, I'd love to link to it.

I hope to do a roundup of blog posts from panelists about personal favorites that didn't make the finals. Send me a link to the post by Friday at anne (at) inlandempress (dot) com so I can post it for early next week.

Thanks in advance!

The 2011 Cybils Finalists

This was the year the Kindle caught Fire, the Nook fought for its niche, Borders went belly up and ebooks overtook their dead tree cousins for good. But for us here at Cybils, it was another year of reading, blogging and more reading. Whether on paper or in pixels, we found plenty of stories worth sharing with the world.

By now, you're probably inundated with "best books of the year" list. Well, here's ours. Kid friendly, blogger approved. Out of 1,289 nominated books, the ones in the links below rose to the top after fierce discussions and numerous rounds of vote-taking and yet more debate.

Enjoy!

--Anne Levy, Cybils admin.

Click on the links for the 2011 Finalists:

Book Apps

Easy Readers & Early Chapter Books

Fantasy & Science Fiction (Middle Grade)

Fantasy & Science Fiction (Young Adult)

Fiction Picture Books

Graphic Novels

Middle Grade Fiction

Nonfiction for Middle Grade & Young Adult

Nonfiction Picture Books

Poetry

Young Adult Fiction

Enjoy your last glimmer of 2011

... because we intend to ring 2012 in with a bang. Yep, it's our very own Cybils tradition of rousing you from your New Year's celebrations with the publication of our short lists. Tune in at one minute past the stroke of midnight (Mountain time). That's 2:01 am Eastern and 11:01 pm Pacific.

On behalf of all of us here at the Cybils Awards, we wish you a happy and healthy New Year, full of lots of great books and the time to read them all in.

--Anne Levy, Cybils Admin.

Cybils by the numbers

I post our numbers just about every year, and every year somebody gets mad at me. Apparently, I don't include enough disclaimers because I assume facts speak for themselves. So I have included some important reminders this time for the sake of clarity.

Total eligible books nominated: 1,289

Disclaimer: Yours wasn't eligible because a) it came out in the wrong year or b) you didn't write one.

Books read by at least one panelist: 1,284 or 99 percent.

Disclaimer: Yes, we read your book. It didn't make the short list because we don't like your looks.

Books read by at least 2 panelists: 1,262 or 98 percent.

Disclaimer: Yes, we read your book. I swear.

Unread books: 5

Disclaimer: Will you stop? It wasn't yours. Honestly.

Panelists with the most books read:

Rebecca Reid and Debbie Nance with 260 apiece.

Disclaimer: They're in fiction picture books, which are shorter than novels. Still more books than many people read in a lifetime.

Panelist with the most pages read:

Hallie Tibbets, with 48,665 pages read

Disclaimer: Page counts reflect the total pages in the book and not the point where Hallie got disgusted and tossed the darn thing across the room.  

Remember to check back tomorrow night after midnight my time (because I am the center of the universe, of course) for our finalists. That's 2:01 am Eastern and 11:01 pm Pacific.

See you then!

--Anne Levy, Cybils admin.

Neener Neener Neeners

The lists of finalists are streaming in from our panels and I'm as thrilled as ever. Some exciting stuff awaits you at 12:01 am Mountain Time (2:01 am Eastern, 11:01 am Pacific) on January 1st. There's a good mix of familiar authors and new discoveries, plus at least one self-published title in the mix.

Hints? Spoilers?

Keep dreaming.

See you in a few days!

-Anne

Review "The Mockingbirds" by Daisy Whitney

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 books, by the way, so I feel pretty confident you're still reading.

Mockingbirds, The
by Daisy Whitney
Little, Brown

I won't give away what bad things happen in The Mockingbirds (which I haven't read) but instead will point you to Ten Cent Notes, written by Jordyn Turney. While she starts off with plot summary, as many bloggers do, she pulls back to look at the book's broader themes of the search for justice and how well the author keeps the story moving along. A sample:

It's about being brave and tough when those are the last things you feel like you can be. The supporting cast of this book - Alex's older sister, her roommates, key members of the Mockingbirds, and even Carter himself - are all amazingly well-written. Each character is there for a reason and each character, even the most minor, have distinct personalities that make them stand out. The cast of characters here is fairly large, but it's written in the most manageable way possible and the dynamics that exist between certain characters, such as Alex and her roommates, add additional layers and depth to the story.

The boldface is hers. Read the rest here.

Teen Fantasy Roundup

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 books she's reading for us.

I've included two here, from October and November, to give you a last-minute chance to pick out a few great reads for the fantasy lover in your household. Which, if you're like me, is the person reading this.

Don't forget to come back to our site and click on the Amazon ad above if you're going to place an order. We get a wee, itty-bitty commission from anything you buy after clicking through us.

Happy Reading!

 

Review "Blackout" by John Rocco

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 Rocco
Hyperion

Natalia Ortega-Brown reviews a picture book called "Blackout" that captures a kid's-eye-view of the more recent night the lights went out. Ortega-Brown should know -- she's an ESL teacher in the South Bronx and blogs at "A Picture Book a Day." She says "Blackout" is one of her favorite books of the year:

It captures perfectly what it felt like to be in New York City during the last big blackout. It was a block party! The sense of family extended beyond the walls of the apartments to include whole neighborhoods. We were almost sad when the lights came back on...

Read the rest here.   

Review "Clean" by Amy Reed

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 to have Paula Chase Hyman joining us, even if we did wallop her with 180 nominations in the Young Adult category. We'll probably have to send in rescue teams to all our YA judges if they don't emerge from under the piles of dead trees by January 1st.

Clean
by Amy Reed
Simon Pulse

Hyman reviewed Amy Reed's "Clean" recently, about teens recovering from drug addiction and gave the book high marks for its realistic depictions of family dysfunction.

An excerpt:

There’s a constant debate when it comes to YA fiction about the absence of parents and how unrealistic it is when parents are in absentia. I think the reality is, parents are often somewhat absent during a child’s teen years, not physically but maybe psychologically. A parent can see their kid every day and still not necessarily know what he or she is going through because teens begin processing for themselves and sharing what they want as much as they hide what they want. This is represented well in Clean.

Read the rest here.