Eisha here. Around here we’ve started referring to Steve Jenkins as "Mr. Cybils." His name crops up on three of our shortlisted titles: as illustrator of Vulture View by April Pulley Sayre (Non-fiction Picture Book) and of Animal Poems by Valerie Worth (Poetry), and as author/illustrator of Living Color (Non-fiction Picture Book). But Mr. Jenkins is no stranger to accolades. Since …

Sarah at Reading YA: Readers’ Rants has whipped our Graphics Novel list into shape as organizer, turning in a superb batch of finalists despite endless hassles locating wayward copies of books. As you might suspect from her blog’s title, she loves books pitched to teens, and recently read Into the Wild (from our fantasy short list) about Rapunzel’s daughter, Julie: …

Get your brand-new blogging trend right here: non-fiction Mondays. It’s the brainchild of Anastasia Suen and we thought we’d join the fun. Chris Barton’s the go-to guy for this genre, with a blog that revels in the variety and depth of the picture books out there on every conceivable topic. Plus, he’s got two of his own due out soon …

Chris Barton = Non Fiction. He’s a writer–of Non-fiction, bien sur–and has been blogging about writing and all things Non Fiction at Bartography since June of 2005. So when we put together our nominating and judging panels for the 2007 Cybils, we went knocking at his (virtual) door. Non-fiction needed Chris, and thank goodness for us he joined the team.

It’s rare that an author gets Cybils nominations in back-to-back years, rarer still that they show up twice in the same year. In fact, there’s only one: the singular Adam Rex. Last year, he made the short list for his poetry collection, Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, which he also illustrated. This year, Rex makes two separate finals, in Fantasy/Science Fiction …

Perhaps few kidlit bloggers have penned more words about their passion than Betsy Bird, better known as Fuse #8. Her popular blog moved to the School Library Journal‘s website earlier this year, where she’s kept up a torrent of reviews, news and witty commentary. Her search for a Palestinian perspective on the Middle East led her to Tasting the Sky, …

Kelly Herold was moved enough to read Robot Dreams twice, which she admits is odd, because there aren’t any actual words in the book. Our Cybils director and co-founder took to heart this story of a dog and a robot who start out as friends until one is forced to desert the other. Varon’s treatment of friendship–and its painful loss–is …

Author Kim Baccellia joins us this year as a panelist in Fantasy and Science Fiction, where she was one of the first on this side of the pond to review Incarceron. So far, it’s only available in Britain, but panelists couldn’t resist including it in the short list. Kim gives us a glimpse into its pages: Flinn has no memory …

First-time author Nancy Crocker makes our Young Adult short list with a compelling coming-of-age novel about a girl named William Marie Standish, who’s all but ignored by her unloving parents. The book drew rave reviews around the blogosphere, with our own Julie Danielson admiring the author’s skill in weaving a nuanced story around a bare-bones plot: …this novel has an …