Part of a series introducing each genre, written by the organizer. The first thing that stands out about books in these two genres is their shape. They're sized for their audience to hold while reading aloud (roughly 6 x 9 inches). Think "reading by nine" and you can visualize this K through 3 audience. Other helpful hints: Easy Readers usually …
The very picture of graphic novels
Part of our series introducing each genre, written by the organizer. Comics FTW! The graphic novels category covers a wide range of stories–everything from wordless picture books appealing to the very young to intense, issue-based young adult novels–all of which tell their stories through serial artwork. All of these stories are welcome. We give an award for both the younger …
The truth about nonfiction for teens and tweens
Part of our series introducing each genre, written by the organizer. Welcome to the Nonfiction Middle Grade & YA category. Nonfiction is defined as work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be FACT. For Middle Grade and Young Adult, these books are often biographies and histories, but can also encompass a wide range of subjects. There are teen travel …
New for Cybils 2011
We promised you some new faces at Cybils, and we're true to our word. We have 53 newcomers among our panelists and judges this year, versus 63 repeats. Someone smarter than myself can figure out that ratio, but I think that's even better than my 60-40 goal for the year (60% veterans, 40% newbies). It's based on self-reporting on the …
No middle ground for middle grade fiction
Part of a series to introduce each genre, written by the organizer. Welcome to Middle Grade Fiction, a category that is very often magical, sometimes action-packed, and sure to be crowd-pleasing. (Note: we're talking about magic without spells and wizards and elves and vampires, and action without the superheroes plus superpowers. Just to be clear). Middle Grade Fiction is where …
A moment of silence for Steve Jobs
The world's average IQ just dropped a bunch of points with the death of Steve Jobs. What he gave all of us — whether it sits on your desk, your lap or in your purse or pocket — is nothing less than amazing. He was the Thomas Edison of our era. I'm a little sad today. Off to read the …
Getting all angsty over young adult fiction
Another in our series introducing each genre, written by the organizer. For your consideration: 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 SFF. In YA Fiction we want the real world of the past and present …
A peek into the whizbang world of book apps
Another in our series introducing each genre, written by the organizer. Boing! Zoom! Zap! Is that your book making all those noises? Are you making things dance, bounce and sing? You must be reading a Book App, maybe on your smart phone or iPad. Digital publishing is certainly changing the way we experience books, but we’ve been especially fascinated by …
Typos and bad links
I just fixed a huge batch of bad links due to coding problems. I don't know html and my live-in computer expert found an actual paying job and stuck me with doing this by myself. Wah. I apologize for the aggravation, especially to bloggers who saw their blog names linked to the wrong URL or none at all. If you …
A brief primer on nonfiction picture books
Starting today, we'll be running short introductions to each genre. If you haven't nominated a book yet, this may give you some guidelines and maybe inspirations. Each is written by that genre's organizer. Kids are curious about absolutely anything, so that's what the books in the non-fiction picture book category will be about–absolutely anything! As long as it's true and …