Cybils

REVIEW Ain't Nothing But a Man

Carol Wilcox of Carol's Corner is one of our nominating panelists for Middle Grade and Young Adult Non-Fiction, and throughout the whole process she's been blogging about some of her favorite nominees and writing detailed, thoughtful reviews.

One of those reviews was of finalist title Ain't Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry, by Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc Aronson. This book is a historian's quest to find out about the real man behind our legendary concept of John Henry, using songs, old photos, prison records, and other artifacts. According to Carol,

Ain't Nothing But a Man is like a field trip into the mind of a historian. Nelson allows us to follow him as he puts together an enormous history puzzle--who was John Henry?

Read the full review here.

REVIEW A Curse Dark As Gold

Miss Erin's blog has been a well-known corner of the kidlitosphere since January of 2006, and since then she's posted numerous excellent book reviews, author interviews, and other thoughts on writing and reading. She also happens to be one of the Postergirlz for Readergirlz, as well as our youngest Cybils judge.

Recently, Miss Erin reviewed one of the finalists for the Fantasy and Science Fiction category, a YA novel entitled A Curse Dark As Gold, by Elizabeth C. Bunce. Fairy-tale retellings are a major subgenre of fantasy, and that's where this book fits: it's a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin that takes place in the England of the Industrial Revolution. From the characters to the magical atmosphere, Erin felt this story was a true standout:

Curse was a lovely, incredible book...one of the best fairy tale retellings I've ever read.

Click here to read the full review.

REVIEW Houndsley and Catina and the Quiet Time

Andi, aka Cloudscome, describes herself as "a librarian posting about multiculti kid's books, poetry, knitting, my garden and gluten free cooking." She blogs at A Wrung Sponge, and she was also a nominating panelist for this year's Cybils Easy Readers category.

Earlier this winter, Cloudscome reviewed a very wintry sort of book, finalist title Houndsley and Catina and the Quiet Time, written by James Howe and illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay. In this book, two friends who have been preparing for a concert find themselves all snowed in. Catina reacts with anxiety, but Houndsley is content to simply sit and watch the world fill with snow.

Howe's language is so poetic in spite of the limited vocabulary and concrete imagery that beginning readers require.

Read the full review here.

REVIEW Wabi Sabi

If you're looking for in-depth and thoughtful reviews of children's books, you'll want to check out the blog 100 Scope Notes, the online home of Fiction Picture Books nominating panelist Travis Jonker. He's an elementary school librarian, and about his blog name, he says "Scope notes help to clarify the meaning of a term or instruct on its usage. 100 Scope Notes = a whole lot of clarifyin’."

Not too long ago, Travis did some clarifyin' on Fiction Picture Books finalist Wabi Sabi, written by Mark Reibstein and illustrated by Ed Young. This charming and gorgeously illustrated book tells the story of an ordinary cat named Wabi Sabi who yearns to discover the meaning of her name. According to Travis,

Wabi Sabi means finding beauty in the ordinary, and that is the theme here. From start to finish, the writing slips back and forth between poetic text and outright poetry in the form of Haiku.

Click here to read the full review.

Review....Haiku??

Today's review of the day is actually several reviews by the same blogger, Emily Mitchell of Emily Reads, who sometimes reviews books in...haiku. Yep, that's right--three-line, pithy, sometimes funny, sometimes truly gorgeous poems about books, including some of our Cybils finalists for 2008. Though Emily's technically a judging panelist for Non-Fiction Picture Books, her review haiku cover a range of categories.

For instance, one of her haiku describes Fantasy/Sci-Fi finalist Graceling by Kristin Cashore:

Mercenary girl
learns trust, love, and redemption.
Badass tour-de-force.

If that's not enough and you want more, check out Emily's reviews of other finalist titles The Cabinet of Wonders (FSF), The London Eye Mystery (MG), Rapunzel's Revenge (GN), and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (YA). Or simply browse through all of her haiku reviews here.

REVIEW Life Sucks

Gail Gauthier is the author of several books for children and middle-grade readers, but she's also a blogger at Original Content, where she writes thoughtfully on a number of writing-related topics as well as posting reviews. She's been doing it since...get ready...2002! Wow. This year, Gail is on our Graphic Novels judging panel.

Recently, Gail reviewed a finalist for the Graphic Novels category--First Second title Life Sucks by Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria, and Warren Pleece. You might have heard of this one back in May, when lots of bloggers participated in an informally organized "vampire month." Well, this book has achieved eternal life as a Cybils finalist, thanks to its clever premise, droll sense of humor, and fitting artwork. In her post, Gail talks about protagonist Dave, who just can't stomach human blood:

This means he'll never become a strapping, healthy vampire, just a miserable, little weak one with a job working permanent nights. Really permanent.

Click here for the full review.

REVIEW Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

Jackie Parker of Interactive Reader has been in the kidlitosphere since way back in 2005! That means oodles of reviews, author interviews, and YA book news from a knowledgeable source--Jackie is a Teen Librarian in the Seattle area, and she loves being able to share quality books with teens as part of her job. She's also our category organizer for Young Adult Fiction, as well as a judging panelist.

One of her recent Cybils-related posts was a combination book review and interview with Sara Zarr, author of Cybils YA Fiction finalist Sweethearts. Zarr's latest novel is the story of Jenna and Cameron, two childhood friends whose lives separated them for a few years. Now, Cameron is back in town, and Jenna is forced to face painful parts of her past that she's been trying to hide. In her interview, Jackie digs deeper into various facets of this complex novel:

Family in both of your books play an important role
- especially father figures. It's refreshing to see in Sweethearts a stepfather character who is loved as much as a biological father might be.

To read more about this book, straight from the author's mouth, click here.

REVIEW Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things

Alysa Stewart, one of our nominating panelists for Middle Grade Fiction this year, contributes to Everead. Simply described as "a book blog," this site brings together the words of wisdom of a couple of book lovers who enjoy talking kids' books as well as sharing news, quotes, interviews, contests, and other tidbits.

One of the reviews featured on Alysa's blog discussed Middle Grade finalist Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things, written by Lenore Look and illustrated by the incomparable LeUyen Pham. Alvin is an irrepressible second-grade boy whose hilarious adventures at school place him squarely with the likes of Ramona Quimby. Except, maybe, for one thing:

Alvin says that he has been diagnosed with "so-so performance anxiety disorder." This means that he doesn't talk when he gets scared and won't make a peep in school!

Read the full review here.

REVIEW Imaginary Menagerie: A Book of Curious Creatures

Kelly Fineman, our hardworking category organizer for Poetry this year, posts her thoughts about poetry, children's writing, and other kidlit topics on her blog, Writing and Ruminating. A poet herself, she is, of course, a regular participant in Poetry Friday.

During one of her Poetry Friday posts, she featured all kinds of books featuring bird-related poetry, including one of this year's Cybils Poetry finalists, Imaginary Menagerie: A Book of Curious Creatures written by Julie Larios and illustrated by Julie Paschkis. Though it isn't strictly about the everyday sort of birds we're all used to, it does include a striking poem about the legendary Thunderbird, as well as poems about other mythical creatures:

I highly commend this book to poetry lovers and art lovers alike, as well as folks who like folktales...as it covers mythical creatures like mermaids, dragons, centaurs, trolls, sea serpents, and hobgoblins, as well as gargoyles, the firebird, cockatrice, the sphinx, will o' the wisp, the naga and the phoenix.

Read the full review here.

REVIEW Savvy by Ingrid Law

Oh, those wonderful 7-Imps! Jules and Eisha of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast have some of the coolest interviews and most in-depth reviews around. I know I speak for many of us around the kidlitosphere in saying that I feel like they're my blogging soul sisters; moreover, they've been an integral part of the Cybils from way back when in Aught Six.

One of their co-reviews, sent in by Fantasy and Sci-Fi judging panelist Eisha, was of finalist title Savvy by Ingrid Law. This middle-grade fantasy novel tells the story of "Mibs" Beaumont, who is on the cusp of thirteen and on the verge of coming into her rather unusual birthright--the "savvy." Her savvy powers could be anything--one of her brothers can even create hurricanes--but will they be enough to solve her problems? Or enough to save her father? Says Eisha:

The idea of a family of extra-specially-abled people is irresistibly cool, but the author does a good job of painting a realistic picture of what that would really mean.

Click here for the full review.