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.
Today's featured review comes courtesy of Easy Readers and Short Chapter Books Round II judge Mary Ann Scheuer. She is a librarian at Redwood Day School in Oakland, CA and shares her passion for reading at her blog, Great Kid Books, in order to help parents locate wonderful reading material for their kids aged 4 - 14.
Earlier this year, Mary Ann reviewed one of our Middle-Grade/YA Non-Fiction nominees, A Life in the Wild: George Schaller's Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts by Pamela S. Turner. The book relates the story of field biologist George Schaller and his studies of wild animals around the world. About its appeal to a young reading audience, Mary Ann says:
Middle school students will like the way this biography moves from place to place. Each chapter focuses on a different animal, and Turner creates suspense and with her descriptions of the challenges that Schaller faced.
Click here for the full review.
Leila Roy is a self-described "uber-librarian" and the nefarious mind behind the blog Bookshelves of Doom, where she posts about YA fiction and related news. She's also the creator and editor of a 'zine for YA short fiction, the TBR Tallboy, and she's well known around the Cybils, too.
One of Leila's recent reviews looked at YA Fiction nominee What I Saw and How I Lied, a historical novel by Judy Blundell that was the 2008 National Book Award Winner for Young People's Literature. She cites the absorbing narrative voice and the noir feel, and describes it as follows:
Evie Spooner's story is a coming-of-age story. Like a lot of coming-of-age stories, there is a tragedy. Like a lot of coming-of-age stories, there is a first love. Like a lot of coming-of-age stories, our heroine learns that the adults in her life are not the shining stars she has always believed them to be.
Click here to read the full review.
Back to Books is an apt moniker for today's featured blog, which is the online home of Nicola Manning, one of our Round I panelists for the Graphic Novels category. She hails from the Niagara Region of Canada and blogs about numerous topics, but she focuses primarily on books, especially those she reads with her nine-year-old son.
In her review of Elementary/Middle Grade Graphic Novel nominee Luke on the Loose by Harry Bliss, she describes her son's enjoyment of this adventurous tale of a little boy racing around the city after a flock of pigeons. About the book, Nicola says:
All the Toon Books are wonderfully illustrated but I must say this one I am particularly partial to the drawings as there are always multiple events happening in the background that make you linger in each frame.
Read the full review here.
Tricia Stohr-Hunt, blogger at The Miss Rumphius Effect, is well-known around the Cybils--she's been a Round I panelist for Non-Fiction Picture Books, and this year she's a Round I panelist for the Poetry category. Since she's a teacher herself (of Education!), she frequently blogs about topics of interest to teachers such as thematic booklists, but besides that, she's a true poetry enthusiast.
As such, one of the Cybils Poetry nominees that Tricia has read and reviewed is entitled Absolutely Wild, a set of animal poems written by Dennis Webster and illustrated with block prints by the author's daughter, Kim Webster Cunningham. Says Tricia about the book:
This is a book that readers young and old will enjoy. It's fun, joyful and energetic in both word and illustration.
Click here for the full review.
Between the two of them, Bill and Karen of the blog Literate Lives constitute one of our Round I panelists for the Non-Fiction Picture Books category. Both of them are teachers who review all sorts of books that can be used in the classroom and with kids, and earlier this year they reviewed one of our Cybils NFPB nominees.
Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea by Steve Jenkins is a richly illustrated book that takes young readers through the various levels of ocean ecosystems, from surface to floor, with riveting facts about ocean life on every page. In her review, Karen says:
Jenkins does a wonderful job explaining the different ecosystems that exist within the ocean. My students will make many connections with what they've already learned and what he shares in this book.
Read the full review here.
Our featured review for today comes from Fantasy and Science Fiction panelist Angie Thompson, who blogs at Angieville and is a round I judge for the YA division of the SFF category. She's also been a Graphic Novels panelist for the Cybils, and on her blog, she writes about YA novels, fantasy, urban fantasy, and news of interest to fellow enthusiasts of the same.
In her review of Maggie Stiefvater's Ballad: A Gathering of Faerie, a companion book to Lament, she describes the book as "a love letter to James fans"--James being the best friend of Dee, who was the main character in the first book. This time James gets to tell his story about following Dee to music school only to have their relationship get all...awkward. And of course the faeries are slated to return, too; not to worry. Angie says about Ballad:
Witty repartee and quirky t-shirts aside, Ballad brings us infinitely farther into James' mind than the brief but enticing glimpse we got in Lament. And what's there is richer and more painful than one might expect from his humorous exterior.
Click here to read the full review.
Sharon Hrycewicz of Bend in the Road says of becoming a children's librarian that coming to work in the library for the first time felt like "coming home." This year, she's one of our panelists for the Easy Readers and Short Chapter Books category, but on her blog she writes about all kinds of realistic fiction for kids, including Middle Grade books like today's featured title.
The Last Invisible Boy by Evan Kuhlman is the illustrated memoir of Finn, who is slowly turning invisible. Yep, invisible. This epistolary novel, Sharon says, is sure to appeal to readers who enjoyed Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and it's also a good read for guys.
"In telling his story, Finn makes lists, draws his life and unfolds a very funny yet poignant story," she notes in the review. Read the full post here.
Today we meet Anne Boles Levy, co-founder, president-for-life and chief bottle washer at Cybils.
Okay, so I don't really have a title that I like, because I don't much like titles. I'm not paying anyone to put up with me, and I have no use for the fooferaw that attends the windier appellations. My job is to think things through for Cybils and let the details work themselves out. Much more David Hume than Jeremy Bentham, if you read this article, complete with the hair-pulling and permanent state of bedraggled-ness.
Continue reading "Introducing Anne Boles Levy, Cybils administrator" »
Today we meet Sheila Ruth, organizer for the Fantasy and Sci-Fi category, with a bio that comes courtesy of her son David:
Sheila Ruth has loved books for a long time, and has been involved with them in many different ways. She is the president of a publishing company known as Imaginator Press, and of a book lovers' site called Wands and Worlds, where she reviews books, and with her son, manages a thriving community of YA book fans. She has also been with the Cybils since their beginning, as the Fantasy and Science Fiction Category Organizer as well as the Publisher Liaison.
In addition to her many book-related commitments, Sheila somehow finds time to work on countless other projects, including several genealogy websites, and homeschooling her son.
Among books, many of her favorites are Young Adult--she says that they’re not just for the young, they're for the young at heart. She publishes many of her reviews for these books on her blog.
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Roscoe Riley Rules #7: Never Race a Runaway Pumpkin
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