Cybils

Meet This Year's Poetry Judges

Our Poetry Category Chair, Jone MacCulloch, has posted part one of what will be a three-part series interviewing some of her panelists in the Poetry category. Wondering who these folks are and what they're looking for in a poetry nominee? Here's a brief excerpt of the interview on Jone's blog, Check It Out:

MsMac [aka Jone]: What is your day job?

Anastasia: I teach writing workshops (online) and write books for kids.

Mary Lee: My day job is 5th grade Language Arts teacher.

Carol: I am a literacy coach at a K-8 bilingual school in urban Denver.

MsMac: Who are your poetry mentors?

Anastasia: I love, love, love poetry by Valerie Worth, Lilian Moore, Margaret Wise Brown and Eve Merriam.

Mary Lee: My poetry mentors are Robert Frost and Kay Ryan; J. Patrick Lewis, Douglas Florian, Joyce Sidman, Jane Yolen, Heidi Mordhorst, and Amy Ludwig Vanderwater.

Carol: Not sure if they are mentors but I love (in no particular order:  Kristine O’Connell George,  Anna Grossnickle Hines, J. Patrick Lewis, Doug Florian, Valerie Worth, Mary Oliver, Langston Hughes, Mary Lee Hahn, Marilyn Singer, lots and lots more.

To read the rest of the interview, click here.

Meet Sarah Stevenson, Cybils Blog Editor

Sarah Stevenson--a freelance writer, artist, graphic designer, and YA author--has been a part of the Cybils since its inaugural year in 2006, and was blog editor for the 2008, 2009, and 2010 Cybils. She's also helped out behind the scenes with various items like the Cybils logo and flyers. Last year she stepped aside from her duties as Cybils blog editor due to having a book eligible in the YA category, but this year she has no such conflict of interest and is very happy to be back.

This month, with a new novel revision on the front burner, she's posting with much help from (and gratitude towards) Literacy Evangelist Jen Robinson.

As the contest really gets under way, check the blog for contest updates, profiles of our organizing team, and book reviews from our many wonderful, hardworking, and talented volunteer bloggers.

Find her on Twitter @aquafortis or on her YA blog, co-hosted by author Tanita Davis, at Finding Wonderland.

Meet Anne Levy, Cybils Overlord in Absentia

Our lovely Cybils Overlord and co-founder Anne Levy is known by many names: Cybils Sherpa, Cybils Editor, O Mighty One. Normally you can see her blog posts right here on the Cybils blog, but this year she's on a bit of a hiatus as her superhuman organizational skills are bent to the task of molding young minds as a 6th grade teacher.

When she has free time (teachers have free time?!?), it's spent writing young adult fantasy/sci-fi stories and trying to arrange some well-deserved poolside daiquiris and cabana boys for her hardworking category chairs.

Meet Jen Robinson, Literacy Evangelist

Jen Robinson is always on the lookout for great books. Throughout studying engineering in college and graduate school, she could often be found browsing the children's section of libraries and bookstores. She now works in the semiconductor industry, and reads and reviews children's and young adult books in her spare time. Said spare time is in short supply these days, because she also has a 2-year-old daughter. Together, they read many, many, many picture books.

Jen has been involved in the Cybils since the beginning. For the past few years she has acted as Cybils' Literacy Evangelist. This mostly means that she uses her blog and social media platforms to spread the word about the Cybils. She also published bi-monthly children's literacy roundups with Carol Rasco from RIF and Terry Doherty from The Family Bookshelf. You can find Jen at Jen Robinson's Book Page or @JensBookPage.

Meet Jone MacCulloch, Poetry Chair

Jone is a regular contributor in the Poetry Friday community. Her blog Check It Out features the work of her students, poetry books for children, and poet interviews. Her school's "Poetry Postcard Project" for National Poetry Month is in its fourth year with postcards traveling the world.

Jone begins her 39th year of teaching this year. She shares her poetry passion with students and staff in Vancouver, WA. She would rather write poetry than memorize poems. Her blog Deowriter is her online notebook for haiku and other poetry forms. You can find out what happens in the library and books she's reading through twitter @JoneMac53.

This haiku describes what she does when she's not teaching, reading or writing.

camera in hand
endless paths to wander
words arrive on wings

Jone lives in the Portland area with her bread baking husband and two doxies.

Meet Sheila Ruth, Fantasy & Science Fiction Chair

Sheila Ruth is happy to have found her tribe in the Cybils. Where else can she geek out about books with other people who get it? She has been with the Cybils since the beginning, and has worn several different hats over the years: Category Chair, Publisher Liaison, and creator/developer of the Cybils database, but her favorite part is reading and debating the books as a panelist.

Sheila loves to read, of course, and when she's not reading she can often be found working backstage in community theatre. She loves computers and technology, and also geeks out about tech gadgets. (She's firmly in the Apple camp, which is clearly far superior to that upstart, Android). She is a life-long resident of Maryland, but is equally at home in cyberspace. Her favorite TV shows are Doctor Who and Once Upon a Time, but she has a morbid fascination with Storage Wars. Her favorite books are too numerous to mention.

Meet Jackie Parker, Young Adult Fiction Chair and Temporary Overlord

Jackie fully believes that her ability to consume great quantities of literature in short periods of time was first fostered by the elementary school program “Book It” which promised a button and free Pizza Hut to those who read enough. It served her well in college, and then again, in 2006 during the inaugural year of the Cybils. Since then, she has wildly wielded directives at YA Fiction panelists each fall and winter. This year she’s serving double duty by remaining YA Fiction chair and serving as Temporary-Decider-In-Chief while Anne the Overlord wrangles her first flock of sixth graders.

A full-time teen librarian, Jackie regularly bribes her teen volunteers with pizza, and is currently looking forward to the imminent purchase of her first house where she has already staked out entire walls to cover with bookshelves. She will somehow manage to move during the Cybils.

The Cybils have yet to reward her with greasy pizza.

Jackie blogs at Interactive Reader, and can be found on Twitter @interactiver.

Meet Mary Ann Scheuer, Book Apps Chair

Multi-tasking Mary Ann is how she's introduced herself lately - but perhaps that's apt as we delve into the world of Book Apps that seem to do so many things at once. Mary Ann is a school librarian, mom to three, grad student and blogger. Each day she spreads a love of reading with 300 elementary students in Berkeley, CA at Emerson Elementary School, a diverse and thriving public school. Each night she divides her time between blogging at Great Kid Books and pursuing her Masters in Library and Information Sciences at San Jose State University. Don't tell her professors, but she would much rather read children's books and share them with others than talk about formal library services! But the truth is, all this multi-tasking is only possible with nightly doses of dark chocolate.

Mary Ann has jumped into the app world with both feet. She’s been reviewing children's book apps on her blog Great Kid Books since January 2011. She chaired the 2011 Cybils Book App committee, working with a great team of panelists. And now she’s also part of the AASL task force to select the Top 25 Apps for Teaching and Learning. At her school, she’s launched a pilot program investigating the way that iPads can help elementary school children learn and explore. More than anything, the best part is seeing how this new technology can engage children in meaningful ways.

Find her on Twitter @MaryAnnScheuer.

Meet Gina Ruiz, Nonfiction MG/YA Chair

Gina Ruiz has Cybils hard-coded into her DNA or at least she thinks so because she's been with the Cybils from the beginning. When she is not living and breathing the Cybils, she is writing; working in a law office and glaring at a certain senior partner about his sentence structure; hanging with her grandkids; eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new one she just got word was on the way in several months; reading tons; reviewing; grumbling about banned books in Arizona and cooking up a storm. She has a short story published in the book ¡Ban This! The BSP Anthology of Xican@ Literature and is working on a novel.

Find Gina on Twitter @GinaRuiz. 

Meet Terry Doherty, Easy Readers and Short Chapter Books Chair

I don't remember the first book I read "all by myself" and I don't know the name of every book I've ever read, but I will talk 'til I'm blue in the face about how much I love to read. And I will share that gift with everyone who is willing to listen to me read aloud.

One of the bonuses of becoming a mom almost 11 years ago was that I had the chance to channel my personal passion into a vehicle that pays forward that love in a way that nurtures new readers and their families. Through The Reading Tub, my nonprofit for family literacy, we get books to families who don't have reading material at home ... or teachers who need more books for their classrooms.

As a master reader, I look forward to practicing my craft every day. It is so exciting to find new, fabulous stories ... that enrich my life or others. It is that magic of discovery that draws me to Chair the Easy Reader / Short Chapter Category. When we find and can recommend books that "make" kids want to practice, then we are guiding them to their own gift. What could be more fun than that?

Find me on Twitter @readingtub.