Known for some killer Poetry Friday posts over at her blog, Writing and Ruminating, Kelly Fineman is a children’s writer and poet, as well as a Nerdfighter Extraordinaire, as she was recently dubbed by John Green. In addition to interviewing authors and posting a whole array of info and resources about poetry, Kelly also reviews children’s books, from the classic …
REVIEW: Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer
Little Willow joins us again for another review: I review a variety of books at my blog, Bildungsroman. Most are young adult fiction, some are for children, some are for adults, but one thing they all have in common is strength of character. Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer definitely has a strong protagonist – a young girl who …
REVIEW: The P.L.A.I.N. Janes
Mary Lee Hahn is one talented lady–not only does she teach fourth and fifth grades, she’s also the author of a book on classroom read-aloud techniques and, along with her colleague Franki Sibberson, she blogs regularly about books for children and young adults at A Year of Reading. Mary Lee wrote a recent overview of Graphic Novels nominee The Plain …
Updated FAQs
Okay, it took a while, but I finally updated our FAQs. If you have a question that isn’t answered here, please put it in the comments and I’ll answer them. –Anne Levy, editor. 1. Which books are eligible? Any children’s or YA book published in English in 2007, including translated and bilingual books. 2. How do I nominate a book?First, …
REVIEW: Animal Poems
When last year’s Cybils was starting up, Elaine Magliaro quickly joined the Blue Rose Girls blog so she could be eligible to serve on the Poetry panel. Not only did Cybils benefit, she’s since left her indelible ink prints all over the blogosphere with dazzling, witty poetry of her own. She now has her own blog, Wild Rose Reader, but …
Cybils panelist a finalist in 2007 Weblog Awards
Tricia Stohr-Hunt, a panelist in the non-fiction picture books, is a finalist under Best Education Blog in the 2007 Weblog Awards for her blog, The Miss Rumphius Effect. Go, Tricia! Woot! There’s only a tiny window to go vote — from today until Nov. 8, when the winners will be announced at the BlogWorldExpo in Las Vegas. Though I don’t …
REVIEW: My Dead Girlfriend
For Halloween, what could be better than a spooky book by a "ghost artist"? Our own Jackie Parker has the details at her blog. For a brief time last summer, Finney was able to forget about his doomed future. See, "for a member of the Bleak family the true measure of success is not what is accomplished in LIFE, but …
REVIEW: In Search of Mockingbird
Many thanks to Cheryl Rainfield, one of our panelists, who’s the first to buy a classified ad here at Cybils. We hope you all clicked on it and visited one of her blogs. She actually has two; the second reviews "Teen books that have something to say", where she has many thoughtful things to say of her own. In today’s …
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 …
A behind-the-scenes look at the nominating panels
Fifty-some bloggers on eight committees are busy finding, reading, and evaluating the hundreds of titles nominated for the 2007 Cybils. What will they be doing and thinking about when choosing the best children’s and YA books of 2007? I. Organizers Each panel organizer supervises the full list of nominations, which includes: Making sure a book has been nominated in the …