--A note from Anne Levy, Cybils Administrator:
I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad problem assembling this year's Cybils finalists. Most of our first-round judges decided to sign their summaries for the short-listed titles. That meant inserting links to their blogs. And that meant meandering through their recent posts, catching up with old friends, making some new discoveries...and generally running out the clock on 2009.
Seriously, I could raise procrastinating to an art form.
I wanted to leave comments thanking each of you for your hard work, but then this list would've been posted sometime in March. So let me point out how this year's panelists outdid even the amazing job done by last year's bunch.
From our database:
- Total eligible books across all categories: 939
- Books read by at least 1 panelist: 931 which is 99.1% of the books
- Books read by at least 2 panelists: 894 which is 95.2% of the books
- Unread books: 8 which is 0.9% of the books
Eight books. That's it. We only failed to read eight books--less than one percent of the nominated titles. One word: Wow.
Like last year, I'm posting links to each page of finalists. If you have trouble seeing a page, leave me a comment below.
Finalists listed after the jump, of course ...
Thank you so so much, Anne, for all your hard work making this wonderful award happen! It was a very great pleasure and honor to be part of the process, and they are lovely lists!
Posted by: Charlotte | January 01, 2010 at 06:28 AM
WHOOOOOOT. Congratulations to all of the authors and illustrators who made it to the shortlists! Thank you to all the panelists!
Posted by: Tarie | January 01, 2010 at 07:07 AM
These are fantastic lists - many thanks to the panelists who read (and read and read and read) these past few months to bring us the finalists. I see many of my favorites on here as well as a few titles I hadn't discovered on my own but will add those to my 2010 reading list!
Posted by: Kate Messner | January 01, 2010 at 07:14 AM
Wow--what an impressive list! A big 'well-done' to everyone involved. In fact, congratulations to the Cybils in general for instituting such a massive undertaking that involves so many dedicated people and gets everyone excited about great books for children and teens. Can't wait to see the finalists--good luck to the Round 2 judges; looks like you've got some tough choices to make :)
Posted by: Kara (Tardisgrl) | January 01, 2010 at 07:37 AM
Anne,
Thanks for all of your hard work pulling all of this together. I LOVED being on a committee and getting to know a whole bunch of terrific books and readers! These lists are wonderful-- a whole bunch of new titles for my 2010 reading list! Thanks again!
Carol
Posted by: Carol Wilcox | January 01, 2010 at 08:19 AM
Great lists. Congratulations to everyone. Thanks, Anne, for all your hard work in making this award a reality.
Posted by: Semicolon | January 01, 2010 at 08:28 AM
This is really wonderful & exciting!! Thanks to all who worked so hard on this!!
Posted by: Andromeda Jazmon | January 01, 2010 at 08:36 AM
Magnificent list! So many fabulous books. Just one quick fiction question about the fiction list. Was Chains allowed to be nominated because it was an October 2008 release? I love that book to pieces, so it got on because of its late publication last year, right?
Posted by: Fuse #8 | January 01, 2010 at 10:49 AM
One more heartfelt thanks for what must be a huge and sometimes crazy-making undertaking. Sending virtual chocolate and bubble bath to the whole judging/reading team!
Posted by: Joni Sensel | January 01, 2010 at 11:25 AM
You all are AMAZING!! Those are some majorly impressive stats, and as round two judge, I SOOOOO appreciate the hard work that has gone into everything up to this point. :)
Posted by: morninglightmama | January 01, 2010 at 12:23 PM
Anne, let me pile on my thanks for all your hard work. Those of us who blog know how much goes into a "regular" post, much less a set as extensive and link-laden as these.
My second year as a panelist was as fun as my first, and you, Sheila, and the Category Organizers make it so easy for us to read all these nominees. THANKS!
Posted by: twitter.com/readingtub | January 01, 2010 at 01:59 PM
More good books! Can't wait to dive into these lists.
Posted by: Susan (Chicken Spaghetti) | January 01, 2010 at 02:51 PM
This was my first experience as a panelist, and it was an absolutely delightful one. Just looked through all the lists, and I'm very impressed with all of them. How wonderful that the kidlit community comes together to support the Cybils.
Posted by: Karen | January 01, 2010 at 03:26 PM
I agree with Karen. It was my first time as a panelist, and it was a blast. What fun to read about the books on everyone else's list, too.
Posted by: Readingjunky | January 01, 2010 at 03:35 PM
Hey Everyone:
First, to Ms. Fuse: Yes, my understanding is that Chains came out after last year's contest ended. So it was eligible.
Second, this was no trouble at all folks. Hard work? What's that? Sheila and the organizers did all the heavy lifting. I just nodded sagely and sat back and watched it all get done.
Happy New Year all. And happy reading!
Posted by: Anne | January 01, 2010 at 05:23 PM
Anne has a lot more to do with the success of the Cybils than she gives herself credit for. Her leadership style strikes the perfect balance of keeping us on track without being overly controlling. We also have a terrific group of people, panelists and organizers, who all pull together to make it work. I've been involved in other volunteer efforts before, but have never seen one that runs as well as the Cybils.
Congratulations to all the authors, illustrators, and publishers behind the shortlisted books!
Posted by: Sheila Ruth | January 01, 2010 at 06:10 PM
Kudos and congrats to all of the readers and writers!
Posted by: Little Willow | January 01, 2010 at 06:37 PM
This was a spectacular, wild ride. I wish I could take a week off work and read the entire short list! =) Thanks, Anne, for everything you've done this year.
Posted by: Mama Librarian | January 01, 2010 at 09:16 PM
A really stellar group of finalists - congrats to everyone, and huge thanks to all those involved in the Herculean task of choosing wonderful books!
Posted by: holly cupala | January 01, 2010 at 09:55 PM
I could not wait to arrive back home today to a reliable internet connection to review the full listings...wow, how exciting to see so many favorites from this past year as well as new titles I look forward to reading. Congratulations to all who have organized, served as panelists, and to the authors and illustrators on the short lists as well! Excitement builds!
Posted by: Rasco from RIF | January 02, 2010 at 02:26 PM
Many thanks for all these thanks! And, uh, thanks to all of you.
Posted by: Anne | January 03, 2010 at 12:36 AM
Why are 2008 books such as CHAINS and TIGER MOON included among the 2009 finalists?
Posted by: Jonathan Hunt | January 03, 2010 at 09:44 AM
Hi Jonathan:
As it says in the header (although very briefly), any book published between last year's contest and this one is eligible. Last year's nominations closed on Oct. 15th. So any book pub'd from Oct. 16th, 2008 through the end of this contest's nominations (Oct. 15th, 2009) was eligible.
Sorry if that's confusing. But when we did it strictly by year, we had a hard time getting review copies of anything published in late November or early December. It was also hard to track them down in libraries, effectively making the books ineligible.
So we compromised and did it by contest date instead, and our problems have pretty much disappeared. This year, we were able to track down and read more than 99% of the nominated titles.
I hope that clears things up.
-Anne Levy
Cybils Admin.
Posted by: Anne | January 03, 2010 at 02:38 PM
Congratulations to the authors & illustrators of the finalists - and to the Cybils panelists for your commitment and thoughtfulness! Can't wait to get my hands on the ones I've not yet read!
Posted by: Matt | January 03, 2010 at 03:54 PM
I don't envy this daunting task. It's a lot of books to read so near the holiday season. So thank you from those of us on the nomination list. It was an honor to be included among such wonderful literature.
Posted by: Christine Taylor-Butler | January 04, 2010 at 12:18 PM
Thanks for explaining how the process works, Anne. Many thanks to you and everyone on the panels for reading so many books on a schedule--especially during the holidays. xoxo And congratulations to all the finalists!
Posted by: Joan Holub | January 05, 2010 at 10:47 AM
You all do such a wonderful job! Congratulations. I missed you all this year and remember how hard it was to get all those books read last year. A Herculean feat. And now I can't wait to read the short lists for this year!
Posted by: Kate Fall | January 05, 2010 at 02:27 PM