REVIEW
Baxter, the Pig Who Wanted to Be Kosher by Laurel Snyder

Jennifer Wharton is a Round I Judge for Fiction Picture Books this year, though you may remember her from last year's Easy Readers and Short Chapter Books panel. Jennifer is a Youth Services Librarian in Wisconsin and she blogs about books and library programs at Jean Little Library, which is named for her personal collection of over 2,000 books. Earlier …

REVIEW
Brain Jack by Brian Falkner

Undusty New Books is the blog of Round I Fantasy and Sci-Fi judge Hallie Tibbetts, a literature event planner and former teacher who loves to read and review young adult books. In addition, she's a volunteer for Narrate Conferences, a nonprofit organization that puts on fun events like…oh, a conference or two about Harry Potter, just to name one example. …

REVIEW
Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same! by Grace Lin

Today's featured review comes from Julie Jurgens of Hi Miss Julie!, a children's librarian and former early childhood teacher in the Chicago area as well as a Round I Judge in the Easy Readers and Early Chapter Books category. On her blog, Julie talks about books, materials and library services for children and teens. Last week, Julie reviewed Cybils Easy …

We’ve Been Immortalized in Poetry!

How often does anyone get to say they've had an ode written about them? Forget the Grecian urn–the Cybils have now been immortalized in a poem by NFPB Round I judge Doret Canton of The Happy Nappy Bookseller. We present it to you forthwith: Nonfiction picture booksStrewn about my placeAll in the name ofChildren's and Young Adult Bloggers Literary AwardsKnown …

REVIEW
My Life as a Book by Janet Tashjian

Jennifer Donovan is a Round 1 Judge for Middle Grade Fiction this year. Besides blogging at her own site, Snapshot, she's the managing editor at 5 Minutes for Books, an online community featuring reviews of books for all ages, giveaways, thoughts on reading and plenty more. Jennifer was also a participant in our Cybils Challenge last month, and she's our …

REVIEW
Candy Bomber by Michael O. Tunnell

Karen Ball, one of our Round I judges for Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction, is a middle school teacher in Connecticut. She blogs at Mrs. B's Favorites, where she reviews a plethora of books for the MG and YA age group. She's been going strong with a whole slew of reviews of nominated NFMG/YA titles, including Candy Bomber: The Story of …

Thanks, Penguin Canada!

Today we’d like to send a thank-you out to Penguin Canada, who not only blogged about their two Cybils nominees (scroll down about a fourth of the way down the page for the entry) on their Today at Penguin page, but also added the Cybils nomination to the individual book pages for Camp X: Trouble In Paradise (an MG Fiction …

REVIEW
Tell Me a Secret by Holly Cupala

Kelly Jensen of the blog Stacked (tagline: "Librarians. Reviews. Mayhem.") describes herself as "a compulsive consumer of all things books and blogs." She's a youth services librarian in Wisconsin, and was a Round II Judge for YA Fiction last year. This year she's bringing her expertise to the Round I panel. A few months ago, Kelly wrote an in-depth review …

Better Know a Panel #2: Easy Readers and Early Chapter Books

Today's panelist Q&A comes to us courtesy of Anastasia Suen, category organizer for the Easy Readers and Early Chapter Books category. Anastasia asked her panelists–and herself–a question truly worthy of the unabashed book enthusiasts we all are around here at the Cybils: The Easy Reader – Early Chapter Book panelists are reading books that help kids learn how to read. …

REVIEW
Henry Aaron’s Dream by Matt Tavares

Doret Canton of the Happy Nappy Bookseller blog is one of our Round I judges for Nonfiction/Information Picture Books this year. As you might have guessed, Doret's a bookseller, and she contributes as well to the blog Color Online, which highlights work by women writers of color. Doret is also a baseball fan, and one of the Cybils nominees she …