HI All! This is Jen, from Jen Robinson’s Book Page. Since there are more than 80 bloggers directly involved in the Cybils (five judges and five nominating committee members for each of the eight categories, plus organizers), it can be a bit hard to keep up with what they’re all posting about the Cybils. I thought that I would bring to your attention a few posts about what our nominating committee members learned.
- Mindy from Propernoun.net is a librarian and long-time blogger. A member of the Young Adult Fiction nominating committee, Mindy has an excellent and thoughtful post about "What I learned from the Cybils." I highly recommend it, especially for those of you on the judging committees. Mindy discusses a book about reviewing and evaluating children’s books, which I have already ordered on her recommendation. Mindy also pointed me to the two other posts on this same topic, listed below.
- Loree Griffin Burns has had a life long passion for books, which she has put to good use as a writer. She writes books about science for children, making her an excellent addition to the MG/YA non-fiction nominating committee. In her blog, A Life in Books, she lists several things that she learned from the Cybils process.
- Chris Barton is both the organizer for the non-fiction picture books committee, and one of the nominating committee members. Chris is a non-fiction picture book author, with his first book due out in 2008. On his blog, he shares lessons learned from his writing process, as well as recommended history books for kids. In this post, Chris writes about how participation in the Cybils will forever change the way he reads and writes non-fiction picture books. He includes a detailed list of qualities that the team considered in their evaluation process.
- Sheila Ruth is the owner of the Wands and Worlds blog, a first stop for people interested in fantasy and science fiction titles for children and young adults. She was a logical pick to be the committee chair for Fantasy and SF, as well as a nominating committee panelist. In this post, Sheila shares observations about the winnowing process, by which the team narrowed from 88 nominees down to five.
I’m sure that there are, and will be, other posts along the same lines. But these should give you a starting point if you’d like to know what we’re learning from this Cybils undertaking. Special thanks to Mindy for the post that inspired this one. Happy Reading!