Happy New Year from the Cybils!

No doubt many of you are either quietly recovering from New Year's Eve celebrations, or perhaps you're diligently working on your list of resolutions for the upcoming year. Our Cybils panelists have been hard at work, too--not just reading nominated titles and settling on the short lists, but also on their own New Year's Resolutions. Here is just a sampling to inspire you in the weeks and months to come:

• Charlotte Taylor of Charlotte's Library, one of our Fantasy and Sci-Fi panelists, had such a wonderful time reading through the nominees that she's resolved to keep her focus on reading sci-fi and fantasy for MG and YA readers during the coming months. Sounds like a very enjoyable goal!
• YA Fiction panelist Becky of Becky's Book Reviews has some admirably ambitious resolutions pertaining to blogging, rating, and reviewing--inspiring and informative for any book blogger.
• Another YA panelist, Amanda from A Patchwork of Books, also has some hopeful blogging resolutions, as well as a very specific reading goal: 250 books, with reviews. Whew!

• Fiction Picture Books organizer and panelist Mother Reader chimes in with an update on her mantra of "comment, connect, create," including a run-down of how she fared with her goals from last year (Comment Challenge, anyone?) and a revision for the new year to come.
• Terry Doherty of The Reading Tub was one of our Easy Readers panelists, talks about keeping goals "modest and reasonable," and makes some great resolutions about inspiring young readers, distributing books, and taking part in the Kidlitosphere.

Last but not least, we even heard about some New Year's Resolutions from a Cybils-nominated author. Laurel Snyder, who wrote Inside the Slidy Diner and Up and Down the Scratchy Mountains, posted a great cartoon as well as some resolutions we could all stand to follow, and reminds herself (and us) to stay balanced, have fun, and be healthy. I'm pretty sure we can all agree with that! Here's wishing you the best in 2009, and happy reading!

--Sarah Stevenson, Deputy Editor