You can feel safe knowing your lists of nominees will go to our trusty panelists, who will then have a good chuckle at your expense, toss your suggestions and vote for their best friends. Scared ya, didn’t I? The panelists are the finest group of unrepentent bookworms and kidlit fetishists to ever set their sticky fingers on a keyboard. What, …
Welcome to the Cybils
Just a friendly reminder from the Cybils team to nominate only one book per category. Thanks all.
Graphic Novels
From Babymouse to American Born Chinese, it’s been quite a year. Graphic Novels use both words and pictures to tell a story; and that story can be anything; superheroes, coming-of-age stories, historical fiction or non-fiction. Since a Graphic Novel can be just about anything — middle grade, young adult, funny, sad — what makes a great one? A great story; …
Non-fiction (Picture Books)
It’s a whole lot easier to say what these books aren’t — fiction — than to say what they are, because there’s so much that they can be. The universe is big and time is long, and every year writers and illustrators immerse themselves in the truth and sweat the details to put more of it within the grasp of …
Non-fiction (Middle Grade and YA)
Tell it like it is. Teens love true stories. Kids love true stories. Whether it’s history, how-to, science, or some other informative topic, nonfiction attracts readers of all ages. Sometimes they browse the vivid photographs and end up reading the text because they’re so drawn in. Other times the informative topic draws you to the book and you learn a …
Fantasy and Science Fiction
Experts keep predicting that the fantasy genre has run its course, but, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of fantasy are an exaggeration. Instead, the genre has grown and diversified, and today we have an incredibly varied menu to choose from. Science Fiction, while not as popular, has also matured into a deep, thought-provoking, literary genre. Fantasy and …
Fiction Picture Books
Picture Books can be funny, touching, beautiful, quirky, or just plain-ol’ breathtaking. Nominate your favorite 2006 picture book today, with one sentence explaining why this title is so very special. We’re looking for books that wow the kids, books they want to read just one more time. Keep in mind there’s a Poetry category, so no collections of verse for …
Poetry
"Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein, is so popular with children, librarians and teachers insist it is the book most frequently stolen from their schools and libraries," Jim Trelease notes in The Read-Aloud Handbook. Silverstein’s collection, first published in 1974, certainly deserves its wild popularity, but many books of poetry for children have been issued this year. 2006! Let’s …
Young Adult Fiction
We want books that you can’t put down. Books that you lose yourself in. Books that make you say (in a good way): "how did this author think to phrase it that way?" For the purposes of nominating, we’ll consider Young Adult to be books suitable for ages 13 and up. If you aren’t sure if a book is Middle …
Middle Grade Fiction
Middle grade fiction. Everybody loves it. They’re the books you read long after you’ve left the babyish picture books and easy readers of your youth behind. Middle grade fiction means chapters. Now since we already have a Fantasy/Sci-Fi category for this award, I won’t be needing anything along those lines. I want you to instead nominate those chapter books that …