It's Cybils Shortlist Time!

Forget that "New Year" crap (pffft! as if anyone pays attention to that). The excitement in the kidlitosphere these days is all for the Cybils shortlists.

As always, there's a great mix of famous and unknowns. If you're a teacher, librarian, or parent, these shortlists are invaluable readers' advisory.

Generally, I have the books on my list but haven't gotten to them yet. That's not a surprise, because I'm almost always way behind in my reading. There are one or two on each list that are totally new to me - woohoo! There are at least a few that I've seen around the blogs and decided not to read, but this nomination might change my mind. Maybe.

What's your Cybils score?

It's Cybils Eve!

Taking a break from Banned Book Week for a day, I have to remind everyone that the Cybils nominations start tomorrow. Woot! And double woot! This is the 5th year for the kidlitosphere's beloved homegrown book awards.

October 1st - 15th, anyone can nominate a book in any category. Teachers, librarians, kids, parents, if you loved it, shout it out! Then the first-round judges swing into action, reading like crazy folks, and winnow the giant piles down to a few finalists for each category. Those lists are released January 1st, and that's when the second-round judges clock in, taking the next month to intensively read and debate every single book on their category's shortlist until one is declared the winner. All winners are announced on Valentine's Day.

I've judged for the past three years, and I can tell you it's a lot of work, but so worth it! If you want to check out the judges for this year (and, of course, their blogs!), stop in and have a gander at the panels. Congratulations to everyone who made the cut!

Also on the Cybils website, along the sidebar: finalists and winners from the last few years, a fine resource for anyone who wants to find marvelous books. If you want to show your support for the bestest little award on the internet, get shopping at the CafePress store.

But most importantly of all . . . what are you going to nominate?

Cybils Days Are Here Again

You have to imagine that with balloons and stuff.

The Cybils, our beloved blogger-run literary awards, are ramping up again, and they're kicking things off with a call for judges. If you've never judged, now's your chance! If you've judged before, you know what it's like! So . . . yeah, follow the link and throw your name in the hat. You have until September 15.

Even if you don't want to judge, start gathering up your favorites of 2010 now, because the noms start October 1.

Like You Needed More to Read

Fire up your TBR list, my lambkins, for--yes!--it's time for the Cybils shortlists!

Easy Readers/Short Chapter Books

Fiction Picture Books

Non-Fiction Picture Books

For the rest of the lists, plus some amazing stats from the equally amazing Anne, check out the finalist post at the Cybils blog. Congrats to all the finalists and thank you to all the round one judges!

Cybils Ahoy!

The noms don't start for the Cybils until October 1, but you can put in your name to be a judge right now. From the Cybils blog, the requirements:

• blog about some aspect of children's or teen books on at least a somewhat consistent basis;
• or contribute regularly to a group blog about same;
• know a thing or two about what kids/teens are reading these days;
• are planning to be reading obsessively over the next few months anyway

Sound like you? Check the rest of the post for more info. Make sure you know what you're getting into! I've done this for the past two years. It is great fun, but also a lot of work. But if you're up to it, let the organizers know!

Book Review: The Sea Serpent and Me by Dashka Slater

Book: The Sea Serpent and Me

Author: Dashka Slater
Illustrator: Catia Chien
Published: 2008

One day, a little girl is taking a bath when a sea serpent slips out of the faucet and into her tub. She promises to take him home to the ocean, but it has to stop raining first. They make friends, the sea serpent telling her all the wonders of the sea. Every day, he grows bigger, until she can't even fit him in the tub, much less hold him in her hand. He has to go back to the sea--but how can she let him go?

The art is what first captured me about this book. Even though they don't make it to the beach until the last quarter of the book, every page evokes the sea with aquatic colors and beautiful sweeps of watercolor like waves. There are also smile-provoking details. For instance, the text describes "fish shaped like guitars." In the illustration, there are fish with long skinny necks and lines running down and floating off their back, like loose strings.

When I got into the book, however, the beauty of the language caught me just as much as the art. There is a bedtime story quality about the text that makes you want to read it aloud.

With picture books, the art and language have to match in tone, and this book succeeds in that so well that I had to double-check that the author and illustrator were in fact two different people. Try The Sea Serpent and Me for a beautiful picture book you won't soon forget.

Book Review: A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker

Book: A Visitor for Bear
Author: Bonny Becker
Illustrator: Kady MacDonald Denton
Published: 2008

Bear prefers to be alone. He has one plate, one cup, and one spoon, and that's the way he likes it. So he's less than welcoming when a mouse invites himself over for tea. But no matter how may times Bear ejects this importunate rodent, he keeps returning. In a battle of wills, who will come out the victor? I think you know.

For some reason, this feels like a very British book to me. Possibly it's the tea. Maybe it's the language--the mouse likes "a bit of tea" and Bear wails, "Begone!" How often do you get to shriek "Begone!" when reading a picture book? Good on you, Becker, for being fearless with the vocabulary.

Kids will get a kick out of poring over the watercolor illustrations as well. Bear and the mouse are both drawn with such expression that even without the text you know everything about them.

This book got a lot of love in the kidlitosphere, and it deserves every ounce.

Book Review: How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham

Book: How to Heal a Broken Wing
Author: Bob Graham
Illustrator: Bob Graham
Published: 2008

Nobody sees the bird fall, except for Will. He picks it up and his mother takes it home with them. His parents help him set and wrap the wing, but there is no miracle drug that will heal it. Only time.

It's hard to summarize this story because it's so simple and yet there's so much going on. It's like trying to talk about haiku. This is a story not only about compassion and empathy, but also about taking action for the benefit of another living creature. Will doesn't just get sad about an injured bird--he stops in his tracks and insists on taking it home to do what he can for it.

In our discussions on this book, I said that this might have even worked better as a wordless book. It's not that the text is lacking in any way, but simply that the pictures tell 95% of the story. They're so expressive and detailed. Where the text sticks to the simple ("Nobody saw the bird fall") the illustrations expand on this. You see the bird hit a skyscraper and plummet from hundreds of feet in the air to a sidewalk filled with rushing, busy people in muted tones. The first creature, other than the bird, to be shown in full color is Will, carefully climbing the subway stairs and holding onto his mother's hand. There's a full-page spread of him picking up the injured bird that's nothing short of beautiful.

While How to Heal a Broken Wing wasn't my immediate favorite of the Cybils books, it grew on me. Pick up this book if you want a story about the little things that one person can do for another living being.

Lookit What I Get to Judge!

The shortlists are out for the Cybils. Here's what I get to judge in the next six weeks:

Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek: A Tall Thin Tale by Deboarah Hopkinson, ill. John Hendrix
The Big Bad Bunny by Franny Billingsley, ill. G. Brian Karas
Chester's Back by Melanie Watts
How to Heal a Broken Wing by Bob Graham
Katie Loves the Kittens by John Himmelman
The Sea Serpent and Me by Dashka Slater, ill. Catia Chien
A Visitor for Bear by Bonny Becker, ill. Kady Denton
Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein, ill. Ed Young

How to choose? Yikes. This is going to be a hard job.

Check out the other shortlists over at the Cybils blog. Congrats to all the authors and illustrators, and thumbs-up to all the members of the nominating panels!

Happy Cybils Eve!

Tomorrow, the finalists for the Cybils award will be announced. Huzzah! Huzzah! This means we only have a month and a half until the WINNAHS are announced on Valentine's Day, and I have a month and a half of poring over picture books and debating them with other people who love picture books. Can't think of anything I'm looking forward to more.

Also, there's some piffling thing about a New Year starting tomorrow. Feh. Clearly, people have their priorities all messed up.

See you back here tomorrow!

It's the Uber-List!

In other words, the grand collection of nominations for the 2008 Cybils Awards, right here!

Now it's time for the first round of judges to go to work, reading, reading, and reading some more to winnow out those special few that will make it to the second round. Good luck, guys! Just from my skimming, it looks like a tough job.

The shortlists will be announced January 1 and the winners on Valentine's Day.

It's the Last Day for the Cybils Nominations!

Just like I said up there. You've only got until midnight to express your love and devotion for your favorite books of the year! Is there a book in one of these categories that you can't imagine living without?

From the Cybils blog:

The genres: Easy Readers, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Novels, Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, Young Adult Novels.

Has it not been nominated yet? Then go nominate, you silly person!

Easy Readers and the Cybils

Jen Robinson, the Cybils' Literacy Evangelist (I want to give Jen some false eyelashes and really heavy pancake makeup now, but somehow I don't think they'd suit her), has a great post up about the Easy Readers category (also sometimes known as early readers). It's a new category for the Cybils, and one that doesn't get a lot of attention in the kidlit world in general. But it's an important step on the road to raising a reader.

Have you got a new reader in your house? What's the book they won't put down? Nominate!

Cybils Nominations are Open!

As of this morning, everyone should stampede on over to the Cybils website and nominate your favorites!

In a nutshell:

On Oct. 1, we publish all nine genres* as separate posts. You leave your nomination in the comments section of each post.

Having trouble? Feel free to email anne (at) bookbuds (dot) net with questions or complaints.

*The genres: Easy Readers, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Novels, Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, Young Adult Novels.

Here are the rest of the rules.

I was a YA judge last year and it was a great experience. This year, I'm on the Fiction Picture Book judging committee, so find some great books for me to read!

Why are you still reading this? Off you go!