I’m pleased to announce that we have 45 nominated titles for middle grade and young adult non-fiction for this year’s Cybils awards. There are lots of great selections for kids of all ages. Many thanks to the people who submitted nominations. Jen Robinson, Organizer for the Middle Grade and Young Adult Nonfiction Category
REVIEW: Tracking Trash by Loree Griffin Burns
Today we bring you a review of a title nominated in this year’s middle grade and young adult nonfiction category: Tracking Trash, by Loree Griffin Burns (Amazon link, BookSense link), reviewed by Mindy from Propernoun.net. Mindy was the administrator for this category last year, and is on this year’s nominating committee. She is a Collection Development Librarian at a book …
REVIEW: Hugo and Miles in I’ve Painted Everything by Scott Magoon
I’m Jen Robinson, and I blog at Jen Robinson’s Book Page. My blog focuses on promoting a love of books to children and a continued appreciation of children’s books by adults. I’ve had a life-long interest in reading and recommending children’s books, and I wanted to do something constructive with that passion. This year, I’m the middle grade and young …
About Jen Robinson
Today we introduce Jen, our Middle Grade and YA Non-Fiction organizer: Although my passion is reading and writing about children’s books, I’m actually an engineer by training, with advanced degrees in Industrial Engineering. I co-own a small software company, where I primarily manage sales, marketing and training. On my frequent business trips, I can usually be found reading children’s and …
Meet Patty Cryan
Patty Cryan has been a bookseller since 1987, specializing in children’s books and graphic novels, as well as fantasy, science fiction, and horror titles for adults. She brings this experience to her position as a judge for the Cybils Fantasy and Science Fiction category. Patty was originally asked to be a judge on the Middle Grade Fiction committee, but graciously …
Meet Tasha Saecker
We’d like to introduce you to Tasha Saecker, director of the Menasha Public Library in Menasha, WI. Tasha started her career as a children’s librarian, and continues to read mainly books for children and young adults. She’s been blogging at Kids Lit, one of the most well-respected blogs in the kidlitosphere, since August of 2003. Kids Lit is "a warm, …
Meet Sarah Beth Durst
Today we’re pleased to bring you an interview with Sarah Beth Durst. Sarah is a writer, and has her debut novel, Into the Wild, coming out in 2007. She blogs at Sarah’s Journal and also has a MySpace page. She started blogging in September 2006, and has jumped in with both feet as a judge for the Middle Grade Fiction …
Meet Sherry Early
Today’s Cybils judge of the day is Sherry Early, blogger at Semicolon since October of 2003. According to her blog, Sherry is a "a 40-something homeschool teacher, foolish Christian, conservative Republican, bookreading fanatic, happily married, mother of eight." She is also the originator of the Saturday Review of Books series (in which dozens of people each link to their favorite …
Meet Leila Roy
Continuing in our plan of introducing you to more of the bloggers behind the Cybils, today we bring you Leila Roy, the force behind the irreverent and well-informed Bookshelves of Doom. Don’t know what we mean by irreverent? Check out this recent post about serving patrons in the library. Leila has been blogging since August of 2004. She was a …
What Our Nominating Committee Members Learned
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 …