Hooray for our 2007 winners! Click here for a short overview of the contest, or peruse the index of 2007 finalists.
We'll open nominations for the 2008 contest on Oct. 1.
Meantime, don't forget your sexy widget. Enter our Amazon code if you want us to get a teensy commission: cybils0c-20.
As with last year, we're asking participants, readers and random visitors to comment on the contest. We're not looking for lavish praise (though we won't delete it, either:-) but a frank appraisal of what is or isn't working, and what needs to improve for next year.
We already know we need to work on our judging criteria--what specifics would you like to see? Or other suggestions?
And we're painfully aware we need to patch relations with publishers so review copies aren't so hard to come by. War stories, anyone?
Other ideas, suggestions and criticisms--constructive or not--are welcome. As always, you may keep yourself anonymous, if you prefer.
If you'd rather sound off in private, email me at anne (at) bookbuds (dot) net.
Thanks to all for your feedback.
--Anne Levy, Editor
A wonderful, informative interview in the Iowa Independent with our own Kelly Herold, even if they did leave off the Fantasy and Science Fiction category.
Many thanks to Libby Gruner from our Fantasy & Science Fiction panel for her thoughtful article on the Cybils over at Literary Mama. She introduces us to a whole new audience of smart, savvy and bookish Moms--exactly the sort of folks we hope to reach as we spread word of the great books we got to read this year.
Thanks, Libby!
Kelly here, again.
We're cleaning up behind the scenes, ordering prizes for our winners and stickers for their books, and soon we'll be soliciting your thoughts on the Cybils process. In the meantime, here's some serious linkage. Take a look, and comment where you can.
The Cybils made Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf this week. (Squee!) Children's Bookshelf is a weekly must, so if you haven't signed up for this glorious freebie, be sure to do so now.
Alli at Y-Pulse includes the Cybils in their Publishing roundup. (Y-Pulse is it for news on Generation Y. As an X-er myself, I'm unclear on the Y age boundaries. Anyone know?)
Tandem Insights has a great post up on all the winning titles. Tandem is a consulting firm for libraries. Check out their blog for the latest on good books.
Wow! The International Reading Association gives us a shout out. Thanks, IRA, we think you're awesome, too.
Illusion--a great site with videos, blogs, galleries, and more--mentions the Fantasy/SciFi Cybils. Illusion focuses on anime, SciFi, games, gadgets--all sorts of cool stuff.
I just LOVE the introduction to Adrienne Martini's post at popular parenting blog Strollerderby. Go read it for a good laugh and an "I've been there."
VWB has a roundup of the winners over at A Library By Any Other Name. VWB also has great posts on the finalist announcements in part 1 and part 2.
And some of our participants weigh in on the process for a behind-the-scenes look at the judging process:
Stacy DeKeyser gives us a diary of a Cybils committee member. It involves IM-ing until 2:18 am. Yikes!
Maureen at Confessions of a Bibliovore is reviewing the Cybils YA finalists: Don't miss her thoughts on Billie Standish Was Here, by Nancy Crocker, and the Cybils winner, Boy Toy, by Barry Lyga.
As always, I'm looking for great links. If you have one, send 'em my way via the comments.
Whether you're coming here from SLJ's Extra Helpings or today's FuseNews, we hope you'll make yourself welcome. Click here for our list of 2007 winners, which we announced last week.
There's loads of fun stuff in our sidebars, from a printable list of finalists to links to our organizers and judges.
Have a blog of your own? We'll be soliciting judges for next year's contest in early August.
Thanks for stopping by!
Kelly here. I hope everyone's had a wonderful weekend--reading, writing, and surfing (the blogs, of course).
The blogs have been buzzing since the Cybils announcements this Valentine's Day. I thought I'd jump in and tell you what everyone's saying.
Our writers and illustrators react with good humor and humility. Brian Floca, author of Lightship (winner Non Fiction Picture book), has trouble with his singulars and plurals as far as the Cybils are concerned, but is happy nonetheless. (Don't worry, Brian. It/They confuse me too.)
Barry Lyga, author of Boy Toy (winner, Young Adult fiction), uses the monosyllable of Keanu, "whoa." That about sums it up, Barry. Congratulations!
Our Middle Grade Fiction winner, Linda Urban (A Crooked Kind of Perfect), writes, "Well.Now.Is there any better way to start a Valentine's Day, but with a whole panel of smart, well-read, thoughtful people showering the love on your book? I don't think there is." And she has a super-cute baby on her blog too!
Shannon Hale--winner in the Young Adult Fantasy/SciFi category for Book of A Thousand Days--celebrates her win and the "club" of people who write for children and young adults. (And don't miss Shannon's fans who weigh in at the Shannon Hale fansite--Little Red Riding Hood.)
Speaking of clubs--check out the Verla Kay boards (a discussion board for writers and illustrators) for their take.
Cybils participants also checked in with graphics, notes, and comments on the judging process. Here's who's talking:
J.L. Bell of Oz and Ends was a judge for the graphic novel category and he discusses some of their considerations here.
Janelle of Writermorphosis talks about being a judge on the busy Fantasy/SciFi committee (10 books! All long!)
Tricia of The Miss Rumphius Effect posted a super-cool graphic. Thanks, Tricia. (Tricia was on the Non Fiction Picture Book nominating panel.)
Other members of the Children's Literature community have their say as well. Roger Sutton, editor of The Horn Book and blogger extraordinaire at Read Roger, is looking for gossip on the winning titles. Our lips are sealed, Roger.
KidlitKim weighs in over at mom2mom (at KansasCity.com). Thanks, Kim!
The Dover Public Library gives us a shout out as well. Thanks, Denise. You have a great library blog.
If you've blogged about the Cybils Awards this year, or have run across a great post, please leave us a comment so we can share the linky love.
What is it about kids' books that gets us? For me, it's about peals of giggles and excited pointing. It's about the dog-earred, juice-stained, crayon-enhanced pages held together by reams of scotch tape and hope.
Cybils is a comfort zone for the similarly obsessed, where no one has to apologize for preferring the manga version of Shakespeare, and it's always okay to just look at the pictures. Even those who don't have kids--or who don't work with them--can curl up with a trashy teen romance or a goofy science fiction spoof. It's all good.
We had our fun reading and judging, and now it's your turn. The winners below are a gift from our hearts to you and the kids you love, even if you're just indulging an inner child.
--Anne Boles Levy, Editor
Sorry I didn't think of this earlier, so that I could've run polls for all eight genres. As it is, the feedback is fun.
Today's poll is about nonfiction picture books. Have at it!
And again, here's the full list of finalists.
Today's poll is for Middle Grade novels. We know you love 'em all. But if you had to get behind just one, which would it be?
Oh, and if you need a memory jog, run here.
Back with another poll today. Remember, full blurbs for all the finalists are here.
Just having some fun here. You excited about our announcements on Thursday? Yep, Thursday. It's almost here. Yipes.
Who would you pick if you were a judge? Today's genre: fiction picture books. Read all the blurbs here.
Okay, prognosticators. Who would you pick for the winners?
It's your turn.
For the next few days, we'll be asking for your choice. Not that our judges will be swayed, sorry to say: we've cloistered them in an undisclosed location for the duration.
First up: YA finalists. For a refresher, read the blurbs here.
We considered ourselves wildly fortunate to land some impressive volunteers our first year out. Inevitably, a few decided not to return this year. But in the case of Loree Griffin Burns, we can't be too sad; after all, she's back as a finalist in nonfiction MG/YA books.
Fiona Bayrock at Books and 'Rocks had a major advantage going into her recent Q&A with Loree: the two met several years ago online and have been best virtual buddies ever since. The resulting post is more low-key banter than eggheaded policy debate, as some might fear from a science book about ocean currents. And yet there's enormous depth throughout.
Knowing her subject so well also meant Fiona could aim straight for the heart of matters. Even in a standard question about process, she skips the usual Q&A cliches to find what might be "organic" about trash. Loree's answer is a dramatic story in itself:
[Books and 'Rocks]: Let's talk a bit about process. I know a book like this takes a tremendous amount of planning. I also read on your website that some parts of the process were "organic". I'd love to hear how the planned vs. organic balance shifted at various points along the way.
[Loree Griffin Burns]: There was a point when the book was ostensibly done, but not finished: I had told Curt and Jim's story, and Charlie's story, and well, then the book just sort of ended. It was not a satisfying conclusion and, worse still, I didn't know how to fix it. While I was struggling with what to do about this, I got a call from a friend. He had heard an NPR piece about scientists collecting net debris in Hawaii and wanted to be sure I had heard it too. I was too worried about my bad ending to be listening to the radio (!) and hadn't heard the story. But I quickly found the report online, learned about the work of ghost net hunters Jim Churnside, Tim Veenstra, and Mary Donohue, and began to envision a new ending.
Several weeks later I interviewed Jim Churnside by phone and asked him how he and his colleagues knew where to look for the ghost nets. His answer gave me goosebumps: "Our first step was to talk to Jim Ingraham about where in the North Pacific Ocean we should look for the ghost nets." These trash trackers -- people I knew nothing about when I started writing the book -- were using computer programs perfected with Curt's tub toy data to find their ghost nets. The story had come full circle ... and I had no idea in the beginning that it would.
I am anal by nature, and so had the writing meticulously planned: proposal, check; interviews, check; drafting of chapters, check; collection of photographs, check; meeting deadline, check. But I found that each step caused me to reexamine the step before.
Read the rest here.
We're nominating Barry Lyga as our personal Boy Toy. Can we do that? He's super-smart, his most recent book has gotten rave reviews and a berth on the Cybils' YA short list, plus, y'know, he's really hot.
Today's feature interview is culled from Becky's Book Reviews, where he reveals that he pays no attention whatsoever to Cybils or any other awards.
We love him anyway.
He had the cojones (can we say that on a kidlit blog?) to tackle a major taboo in Boy Toy--about a 12-year-old boy seduced by his female teacher.
Becky proves an adroit interviewer, with questions that gradually zero in on the most controversial bits of the story, as in this exchange (Caution--SPOILERS):
[Becky]:The book opens—quite effectively in my opinion—with a Top Ten list [by] our narrator: Josh’s list of “Ten Things I Learned At the Age of Twelve.” Was this an easy decision? Did you know how or where to start to hook the reader? As I said, I think this works great…
[Barry Lyga]: Thanks! I wanted to tell people what this book was about right up front. I didn’t want to pretend. If the idea of a twelve year old having sex is beyond your comfort zone, then you can’t say I didn’t warn you from page one. I also felt like it was a good hook. I figured that if you got to the tenth item on the list and decided not to keep reading, I probably wasn’t going to keep you as a reader anyway. That opening was the first thing I thought of for the book — I carried it around in my head for a year or so before I actually sat down to write.
Read the rest here.
Tired
of waiting for the big announcements? Want to put an end to that
K-nuffle Bunny pronunciation debate? Or get the scoop on those
spotless New York City backdrops? Pop over to the
Just One More Book! children’s book Podcast
and listen in as the hilarious and modest Mo
Willems
shares his thoughts on "playing" books, hiking bears and
the small story of a tiny happening known as Knuffle
Bunny Too
(2007
Fiction Picture Books Finalist).
While you’re there, discover the secrets of the five-year-old brain and the parallels of baking and writing children’s books as author Natasha Wing shares the genesis of 2007 Fiction Picture Books Finalist Go To Bed, Monster!
And that’s not all. Keep an ear on JOMB in the coming weeks as we roll out conversations with author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers (The Incredible Book-Eating Boy, Fiction Picture Books) and authors of 2007 Non-Fiction Picture Book Finalists:
Lita Judge (One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II)
David Schwartz (Where in the Wild? Camouflaged Creatures Concealed...and Revealed)
Yael Schy (Where in the Wild? Camouflaged Creatures Concealed...and Revealed)
Lizann Flatt (Let's Go! the Story of Getting from There to Here).
Besides being amazingly creative and intelligent, it turns out they’re generous, interesting and down-to-earth. Listen in and find out for yourself.
--Andrea Ross, Just One More Book!!
It's interview week here at Cybils, and we're bringing you the best Q&A tidbits from around our cozy corner of the blogosphere.
What more fabulous way to start off than revisiting the great romance of MotherReader and Mo Willems? Though we could probably shorten that to just Mo' R and Mo W by now. She's been practically cyberstalking the kidlit uber-celebrity (and fiction picture book finalist) since way back, and it's likely only her smart-alecky humor--and wry humility--has kept her out of jail so far.
She's even indexed her posts on him.
Mo' R was first to nab a reaction after Knuffle Bunny Too won two medals from the American Library Association--a lovely Caldecott honor and a Carnegie Medal (descriptions here).
In her short, sweet post, Mo' R gets right to the point:
In dashing off a note of congratulations to Mo, I slipped in that I might want to ask a few questions. Gracious man that he is — and wise as well — he shared some thoughts about the awards.
[Mo' R]: When did you get the call and what did you say? And then when did you get the second call and what did you say?
[Mo W]: I can’t really recall. Let’s assume I was witty and clever and charming and modest and kind and thoughtful and erudite with clear diction on one call and a dumb jackass on the other, shall we?
Read the rest here.
Kelly here, checking in with a review from Jen Robinson.
What can we say about Jen in a brief introduction? Well, she runs an amazing blog (Jen Robinson's Book Page), writes level-headed, intelligent reviews, and has a passion for childhood literacy. She's been with the Cybils from the beginning and we couldn't think of surviving without her. Jen is an expert. A diamond. A class act.
Here's her take on Catherine Murdock's The Off Season:
I was eager to read Catherine Murdock's The Off Season, sequel to Dairy Queen, because I loved the first book. The Off Season picks up right where Dairy Queen left off. Quiet, determined D.J. attends the Jorgensen's annual Labor Day picnic and starts her junior year in high school. School is a bit different for her now, because she's playing on the school football team. As a girl. So she gets more attention than she's used to. It's mostly positive attention, because she's good at football. So the year starts out well for D.J. Things really look up when the handsome rival quarterback, Brian (featured in the previous book), begins treating her as more than just a friend.
But alas, things start to go downhill from there. An injury makes D.J. question whether or not she can continue playing football. D.J.'s best friend, Amber, is wrapped up in a new girlfriend, causing some strain. D.J.'s favorite brother, Curtis, is sneaking around and lying to the family, and their mother throws out her back from the stress. Not to mention Brian's evident reluctance to be seen with D.J. out in public. And then a real tragedy occurs, changing everything for D.J. and her family.
Oh, how I love the Schwenk family.
Eisha here. Around here we've started referring to Steve Jenkins as "Mr. Cybils." His name crops up on three of our shortlisted titles: as illustrator of Vulture View by April Pulley Sayre (Non-fiction Picture Book) and of Animal Poems by Valerie Worth (Poetry), and as author/illustrator of Living Color (Non-fiction Picture Book).
But Mr. Jenkins is no stranger to accolades. Since he leapt onto the children's book scene in 1995 with Biggest, Strongest, Fastest, he's garnered just about every award an illustrator and children's book author can get. His books frequently turn up on Best-Of lists; and he was the recipient of a Caldecott Honor in 2004 for What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?, authored by his wife and frequent collaborator Robin Page.
His distinctive cut-paper collage illustrations are the perfect medium for his child-friendly texts, which often depict animals and other aspects of the natural world.
We asked Jules, our Picture Books Organizer, to act as our virtual ambassador and ask him a few questions about his uber-talented self. Below are excerpts from their interview:
Children’s book author Jon Scieszka talks through his Guys Read effort about how teachers and librarians can sometimes be dismissive of non-fiction. Do you have any thoughts on that?
In my experience teachers and librarians have not been dismissive of non-fiction, though that may be because I’m usually interacting with a self-selected group of non-fiction fans. In fact, that’s so obvious I don’t know why I never thought of it before …
I agree with Jon. I think there are several things going on. Many early education professionals come from a language arts or ‘soft’ science background, such as sociology (I’m not using ‘soft’ in a negative way), rather than from a ‘hard’ science (physics, chemistry, biology) curriculum. Reading and analyzing fiction is an integral part of most teachers’ education.
I also think fiction and non-fiction elicit different kinds of passion in readers. The themes of fiction — love, fear, adventure, triumph over adversity — are universal. Read aloud, the exploits of Lily or Despereaux can’t fail to captivate a room full of kids.
The pleasures of non-fiction are more subtle. Few readers laugh out loud or cry as they learn about the extraordinary abilities of the jumping spider or how the continents have drifted about.
And not all children are interested in the same non-fiction subjects. Some are fascinated by astronomy, others by geology or zoology. Unless a child has expressed interest in a specific subject, I think it’s much harder for a librarian to suggest a sure-fire non-fiction book.
Sarah at Reading YA: Readers' Rants has whipped our Graphics Novel list into shape as organizer, turning in a superb batch of finalists despite endless hassles locating wayward copies of books.
As you might suspect from her blog's title, she loves books pitched to teens, and recently read Into the Wild
Julie's just a normal twelve-year-old girl--so normal, in fact, that she sometimes wishes her mother weren't an escaped fairy-tale character with weird friends like the embarrassingly outlandish Cindy (aka Cinderella) or the egotistical Goldie (Goldilocks). And she really wishes that she didn't have to deal with the Wild living under her bed and trying to eat all her stuff...until one day, the Wild escapes and begins taking over the town, absorbing everyone into its fairy tales. Even worse, it's taken her mother.
Read the rest here.
Okay, he's in my house (Anne here). I mean, not physically here, amid the pile of books and debris, but inside my laptop. It's probably really cramped in there, especially him being an illustrator of THREE finalists this year.
Jules of 7-Imp's gone and interviewed him for us and now he's happily waiting inside my hard drive until I can release him. Meanwhile, check out some of his stunning art that Jules posted, if you haven't already.
Find out his thoughts on whether non-fiction gets a cold shoulder compared to fiction, and walk through the stages of his complex paper creations. You'll get a glimpse to find out why he's one of the hottest artists in kidlit land.
This Thursday, here at Cybils. (Jules will run a longer version on her own blog at a later date.)
Mark your calendars!
Recent Comments
Dragon's Keep by Janet Lee Carey