Get your brand-new blogging trend right here: non-fiction Mondays. It’s the brainchild of Anastasia Suen and we thought we’d join the fun. Chris Barton’s the go-to guy for this genre, with a blog that revels in the variety and depth of the picture books out there on every conceivable topic. Plus, he’s got two of his own due out soon …
Cybils goes Barefoot
We have another new sponsor–we’ll get a commission from Barefoot Books if you buy from them online. Just click this here button: … or this one: … and shop one of the hippest independent publishers around. We can thank one of their "stallholders" Richele Baburina for her generosity in setting this up for us. How cool is that? (And, hey, …
Meet Erin McIntosh
We rely heavily on word-of-blog to spread the Cybils gospel, and few have been more enthusiastic than Erin Marie McIntosh from Miss Erin, one of only three teens among our volunteers. She was one of our inaugural members, serving on last year’s Fantasy/Science Fiction panel, and she’s back this time on Middle Grade fiction. Today’s she’s the featured interview at …
REVIEW
Pssst! by Adam Rex
It’s rare that an author gets Cybils nominations in back-to-back years, rarer still that they show up twice in the same year. In fact, there’s only one: the singular Adam Rex. Last year, he made the short list for his poetry collection, Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, which he also illustrated. This year, Rex makes two separate finals, in Fantasy/Science Fiction …
REVIEW: Tasting the Sky by Ibtisam Barakat
Perhaps few kidlit bloggers have penned more words about their passion than Betsy Bird, better known as Fuse #8. Her popular blog moved to the School Library Journal‘s website earlier this year, where she’s kept up a torrent of reviews, news and witty commentary. Her search for a Palestinian perspective on the Middle East led her to Tasting the Sky, …
Go say ‘hi’ to Camille
Camille Powell from BookMoot is today’s interviewee over at 7-Imp. Her blog’s about to turn four. Wow. She’s lending her expertise to the nonfiction MG/YA judges this year. Cool interview tidbit: she’s a quilter, and is learning to knit socks. Check it out.
More sexy widgets!
Okay, so only one person commented on my SmartLinks post (Thanks, cloudscome!). But a number of you signed up for a SmartLinks widget, and they’re returning the love. Meet Fraser, their programmer. Here’s his blog again. Ain’t he cute? I love geeks (yeah, okay, so I’m old enough to be his crazy auntie). And he worked his tush off to …
REVIEW: Robot Dreams by Sara Varon
Kelly Herold was moved enough to read Robot Dreams twice, which she admits is odd, because there aren’t any actual words in the book. Our Cybils director and co-founder took to heart this story of a dog and a robot who start out as friends until one is forced to desert the other. Varon’s treatment of friendship–and its painful loss–is …
A peek behind the scenes
Maybe you’d like to join us next year at Cybils. Perhaps you’re already volunteering, but curious how the other panels went. Or maybe you want to relive the moment when it all came together and your finalists were, well, finalized. Several of our bloggers have been generous about sharing their experiences and insights this Cybils season. Stacy DeKeyser gives us …
Read all about them
Our panelists and judges are busy, busy folks. It’s tough to keep up with them, but here are two newsy tidbits: The Middle Grade panelists had some fun with characters from their favorite books, compiling a Hall of Fame. This is by now a tradition for Little Willow, who compiled one for YA characters last year. Mary Lee & Franki …