When Anne and I led a panel session on the Cybils at the 1st Annual Kidslitosphere Conference this weekend in Chicago, one theme in particular kept popping up during discussions: How do we decide if a book is child-friendly or not? This is an important question for the ninety panelists and judges evaluating the hundreds of children’s and YA books …
Poll: School, Work, or Play?
We’ll be conducting reader polls here to see who’s reading what. Leave your answers in the comments! Do you read mostly for fun, or is the majority of what you read assigned by school or related to work? Are you reading for leisure or to educate yourself – or a bit of both? — Little Willow
Howdy, Texans!
A big welcome to folks landing here from the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented, who now have us listed on their "Online Resources" page. On your right, you’ll see some links under "welcome" to give you last year’s contest results. That’s probably what you came to see. We have a new contest coming up October 1. You’re welcome …
Working in tandem
We had a nice surprise from the folks at Tandem Library Books the other day. I first noticed our hits going through the roof–more than 500 by midday, a number that nearly rivaled our big announcement. What’s up with that, I wondered. But there wasn’t any link in the referrers; everyone was coming from emails and then remaining to browse …
Buzz
The net is buzzing with news of The Cybils. Here’s what the internet has to say: Susan at Northern Suburban Library Systems immediately makes the blogging connection, writing “Congratulations to the group of bloggers who have diligently read and voted on the 2006 best children’s books. They just announced (on a blog, of course) their top choices in nine categories.” …
Some Interesting Facts about The 2006 Cybils
Just a few things I’ve noticed, the day after… When we opened nominations for the 2006 Cybils back in October, we made sure to mention that the only rules were that nominated books have a 2006 copyright date and be published in English. So, we’re glad to report that, even though The Cybils are run out of Chicago, Illinois, two …
Hey, we’re famous!
How do you know when you’ve arrived? We seen signs of it in how publishers respond to us. Take, for example, this contest from Chronicle Books. They’re giving away a gift basket of their best books from the past year. Scroll down and you’ll notice they list "Cybils finalist" along with the other honors for Tour America and An Egg …
Spreading the word
As the deliberations come to a close, I’m left wondering about an important part of the awards process. Since there are plenty of smart people in and about the kidlitosphere, perhaps one to one hundred of you can offer your advice. Here’s the question: How to get the word out? It’s as simple as that. We e-mailed the big bookblogs–the …
Who do you think you are?
One question that has popped up here and there in response to the Cybils and the awards process is "who do you think you are? Mr. Bigstuff?" More specifically, people want to know what, exactly, makes kidlit bloggers qualified to judge children’s books. We’re not like those awarding the ALA prizes. Everyone knows who they are–librarians and other members of …
The countdown begins …
After today, only two weeks remain until the Big Day. Yep, we plan to announce winners right here in this very space on February 14. Think of it as a great, big, Valentine’s smooch for the winning authors and illustrators (and their fans). But for every winner, there will be fivefour, ah, runners-up. Honorees? I don’t know what we’ve decided …