Cybils

2009 Nominations Young Adult Fiction

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

You'll find no dragons or magic, robots or vampires here. Just real people, in the real world, in real situations. In a good YA novel teens will find themselves and discover their world. A great YA novel will do both of those while respecting and appealing to its audience.

We are looking for a handful of the greatest teen novels of 2009. Historical, humorous, or contemporary, they must have literary merit AND a lasting effect on their readers; something teens will press into their friends' hands with fervor in their eyes and say, "You HAVE to read this book."

--Jackie Parker, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

2009 Nominations Middle Grade Fiction

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

The middle grade years are those with the most potential to turn a child into a reader for life. It's often the books you read between the ages of 8-12 that you remember long into adulthood as your dearest books of all. These are the years when kids really and truly start to figure themselves out as readers--their likes and dislikes and all the rest in between. It's during this time when children strike out on their own in earnest, reading for themselves and by themselves, all the while creating themselves.

In this Cybils category, we're looking for the 2009 novels that capture real life in all of its wonderful messiness. So we're not talking magic or superheroes or werewolves or elves. Instead, think adventures and school stories, mysteries and stories about families, and tales that tell kids of life across the globe. Tell us which of the Middle Grade fiction titles published this year you think kids will still be talking about when they're all grown up.

--Kerry Millar, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

2009 Nominations Easy Readers and Short Chapter Books

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

When children learn to read, they start with very simple "easy readers" and move up to short books with chapters. 

Easy readers are the small 6"x9" books with short simple sentences. Easy readers have 8-64 pages, a large typeface with lots of white space on the page, and are fully illustrated in color (like Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel.) 

Short chapter books are also 6"x9" but these books have longer sentences, more text on each page, and a smaller typeface with less white space. Short chapter books have 48-128 pages and the interior art is usually black and white (like the Magic Tree House books by Mary Pope Osborne.) 

For this double category we are looking for both fiction and nonfiction books. An award will be given for an easy reader and for a short chapter book.

--Anastasia Suen, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

2009 Nominations Fantasy and Science Fiction

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

Science fiction and fantasy takes us to realms of the imagination: places and times and realities where the rules of life may be different than our own and where the impossible and improbable become real. But good science fiction and fantasy does more than that: it asks, "What if?" It makes us think. It holds up a mirror to our own society and lets us see ourselves in a different light.

Like our counterparts in the other categories, we'll be looking for books that combine the best writing with kid or teen appeal, but we'll also be looking at some of the unique requirements of the genre, such as world building and internal consistency. The elements in a science fiction or fantasy book don't have to be possible, but the writer must make us believe that they really could exist, perhaps do exist, if only we could find them.

This is a diverse category that includes a wide range of subjects, from wizards, demons and vampires to outer space adventures, alternate history, and dystopian futures. If a book has any unreal, otherworldly, or mystical elements in it, chances are that it belongs here.

--Sheila Ruth, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

2009 Nominations Fiction Picture Books

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

A good picture book is a pleasing merger of text and artwork. A great picture book is a celebration of story and illustration, with lasting appeal for kids and/or adults. The best picture books completely excel in art, story, kid-friendliness, and adult appeal.

A Cybils-winning picture book adds that special "It Factor." In message, in world-view, in connection, in humor, in reach, a book with "It Factor" rises to a higher level. These are the picture books we bring home to show our seventh-grade daughter. These are the titles that we recommend repeatedly to everyone who will listen. These are the ones we buy even if we have no preschool children, and the ones we pull out to read again and again. And at the end of the Cybils judging, these are the books that we hope to share with you.

--Pam Coughlan, organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

2009 Nominations Graphic Novels

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

The graphic novel is one of the most versatile categories of children's literature, combining pictures and words to form a seamless flow of story on almost any topic imaginable. Unlike standard 32-page picture books, targeted largely to the under-12 set, graphic novels can expand to fill hundreds of pages. They provide a unique twist on stories that fit our other categories, whether YA or early chapter book, nonfiction or fantasy.

The best graphic novels blend visual and literary storytelling synergistically, which is to say that each half embroiders on the story in ways the other cannot. The result is a fully-realized and complex tale-- something un-put-down-able and unforgettable. We're looking forward to reading your choices for the best graphics of 2009!

--Liz Jones, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

2009 Nominations Middle Grade/YA Non-Fiction

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

School Library Journal says that kids are paying more attention to nonfiction. Amen! 2009 has been a stellar year for the facts, and this is the spot to nominate informational books for older children and teenagers: biography, autobiography, science, history, sports, how-to, math, etc.

Past winners of the category are Freedom Walkers, by Russell Freedman (2006), Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood, by Ibtisam Barakat (2007), and The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir, by Cylin Busby and John Busby (2008).

--Susan Thomsen, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

2009 Nominations Non-Fiction/Information Picture Books

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

Kids love interesting non-fiction books. Kids love information books. And the sky is the limit for kids' interests. The Non-fiction/Information Picture Book category is looking for stunning, visual nominees that capture the curiosity and wonder of children of all ages.

From science to art, history to sports, or current events to biographies, if the book has a fresh approach, kid appeal, fabulous illustrations, photography, and will be picked up again and again, please nominate

Non-fiction picture books will be 48 pages or less and aimed at younger readers. Non-fiction books 48 pages or more, with longer, denser text divided into chapters, belong in the Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction category. The committee will refer to the Library of Congress classification as a guide for determining non-fiction status. Folktales, fairy tales, and poetry will be referred to appropriate committees.

Previous winners in this category include Nic Bishop’s Frogs (2008), Lightship by Brian Floca (2007), and An Egg is Quiet by Diana Ashton (2006).

--Jone MacCulloch, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

2009 Nominations Poetry

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

WHAT BELONGS IN THE POETRY CATEGORY: Poetry collections, whether for toddlers, school-aged kids or teens. If it's a picture book that consists of a single poem, it belongs with the appropriate category of picture books. If it's a novel in verse, it belongs with the appropriate category of novels.

Just as poetry itself comes in a number of forms (including free verse, which is arguably no form at all), poetry collections come in different shapes and sizes. They can be written by one poet or by many; they can include illustrations or not. If the book you are thinking of is a collection of poems, this is where it belongs. And boy are the panelists excited to start reading!

--Kelly Fineman, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

2009 Nominations are now closed

Welcome to the 2009 Cybils awards. Our nominations are closed for this year but there's more fun to come. Our finalists are announced on January 1st, so there's a reason to wake up early on New Year's Day.

Read on for the full list of nominations ...