Middle Grade Fiction – Category Description

Middle grade fiction encompasses a wide range of stories that do not have magical elements and are geared toward the 8 to 12 year old age group. These stories could be mysteries, histories, humor, sports, adventure and other tales set in the real world. Middle Grade readers’ tastes and reading abilities can vary widely, and getting them a book that …

Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction – Category Description

Inventive, wild, and wonderful–great speculative fiction for kids just keeps on coming! Along with the obvious wizards and aliens, this category includes books with talking animals, time-travel, ghosts, and paranormal abilities, and all the other books that might not have obvious magic or travel to distant planets, but which push past the boundaries of daily life into the realm of …

Elementary/Middle Grade Non-fiction – Category Description

Nonfiction is the perfect way to introduce elementary and middle grade kids to the amazing world around them from history and biography to art and nature. Science? Math? Animals? Sports? It’s all here and more besides! We’re looking for titles that are suitable for reading aloud or independently, including picture books and early chapters (nonfiction easy readers go to the easy reader category). We …

Fiction Picture Books – Category Description

The category of Fiction Picture Books would appear clearcut: books that are fictional with pictures. Oh, but that simplicity is deceptive. The category contains titles for toddlers and third graders, funny stories and moving tales, history and fantasy, traditions and diversity, elegance and silliness, education and entertainment. An amazing conceptual range for books with typically 32 to 48 pages. All these types of books …

The Cybils Goes to Kidlitcon 2014

KidLitCon14, October 10-11, 2014, Sacramento, CA

Kidlitcon 2014- Blogging Diversity in Young Adult and Children’s Lit: What’s Next? (Oct 10th and 11th, Sacramento, CA) is not only going to be a great conference, it’s also going to be a great place to meet lots of folks involved with the Cybils! For starters, all three of the wonderful co-chairs of Kidlitcon—Sarah Stevenson and Tanita Davis and Jen …

Graphics – Category Description

This category is for the kid in all of us who pounced on the funny pages on Sunday mornings as soon as the paper arrived. However, graphic novels go way beyond Garfield and Superman, covering 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. We give …

Easy Reader/Short Chapter Books – Category Description

This category is all about books for beginning readers, covering an age range from preschool to grade 3. There are two subcategories: Easy readers use short sentences, large print and a controlled vocabulary to give brand-new readers opportunities to practice decoding and comprehending text. These books are usually illustrated in full color, with pictures on every page, and they are …

2014 Young Adult Non-Fiction Judges

First Round Stephanie Charlefour Love. Life. Read. @scharle4 Aaron Maurer Coffee for the Brain @coffeechugbooks Michelle Lockwood Blogs Like a Girl @blogslikeagirl Karen Ball Mrs. B’s Favorites @batgirl_books Danyelle Leach Bookshelves in the Cul-de–Sac   Second Round Jessica Tackett-MacDonald Her Life With Books @herlifewthbooks Louise Capizzo The Nonfiction Detectives @Lcapizzo Jennifer Rothschild Biblio File @kidsilkhaze Adrienne Gillespie Books and Bassets …

2014 Young Adult Speculative Fiction Judges

First Round Sheila Ruth Wands and Worlds @sheilaruth Karen Jensen Teen Librarian’s Toolbox @tlt16 Kim Baccellia Kim Baccellia @ixtumea Allie Jones In Bed With Books @wearedevilcow Kathy Burnette The Brain Lair @thebrainlair Maureen Kearney Confessions of a Bibliovore @mosylu Kimberly Francisco Stacked Books @kimberlymarief Second Round Tanita Davis Finding Wonderland Jennifer Rummel YA BookNerd @yabooknerd Cecelia Larsen Adventures of Cecelia …

2014 Young Adult Fiction Judges

First Round Leila Roy Bookshelves of Doom @bkshelvesofdoom William Polking Guys Lit Wire @polking Melissa Wiley Here in the Bonny Glen @melissawiley Andrea Lipinski Be a Better Booktalker Lyn Miller-Lachmann The Pirate Tree @lmillerlachmann Mindi Rench NextBestBook @mindi_r   Second Round Summer Kaleq MissFictional’s World of YA Books @Miss_Fictional Nicole Pelliccia The Book Bandit Blog @Book_Bandit Megan Alabaugh YA? Why …