The 2019 Cybils Nominations are now OPEN!

The 2019 Cybils nominations are open and ready for you! Some quick reminders: First off, be sure to check out our category descriptions. If you don’t know where the book should go, please read through the descriptions to help you decide. If you’re still not quite sure, make your best guess, and we can straighten things out behind the scenes. …

Nomination Day is Tomorrow!

And we’re all excited! We can’t wait to see what excellent books (published between October 16, 2018 and October 15, 2019) that you  nominate! A quick reminder: The nominations open at midnight on October 1st (that’s tomorrow!).  And, if you’re still unsure about what goes where, please check out our category descriptions.  Get ready to nominate! 

Cybils Inclusivity Initiative: Goals & Guidelines

Diversity is being invited to the party.  Inclusion is being asked to dance.  –Verna Myers, ILA2017   Although diversity is not one of the two key criteria (reader appeal and literary merit) we use in our judging, it can contribute to both, and is something that is valued by the Cybils Board of Directors. During the last awards season, we …

Category Description: Young Adult Fiction

The world as it was and is. Not as it could, or would, or should be. Send the dystopias and space operas, the fairies and angels, the blood-suckers, zombies, and alternate realities to Speculative Fiction. In YA Fiction we are looking for realistic fiction, be it contemporary or historical, funny or mysterious, romantic or adventurous. We want the real world …

Category Descriptions: Young Adult Speculative Fiction

Speculative Fiction takes us to realms of the imagination: places and times and realities where the rules of life may be different than our own and where the impossible and improbable become real. But good science fiction and fantasy does more than that: it asks, “What if?” It makes us think. It holds up a mirror to our own society …

Category Description: Junior/Senior High Nonfiction

Novels may get all the glory, but we know that truth is stranger than fiction any day of the week. We’re currently in a golden age of nonfiction. Forget the dry stuff they used to read in school to help with homework–today’s authors understand how important a great nonfiction piece of writing is to both students and teachers, both for …