A Big Guy Took My Ball! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) Mo Willems Disney Hyperion Nominated by: Danielle Smith Elephant and Piggie are back, bigger and better than ever! When Piggie’s beloved new ball get stolen by a mysterious “big guy” it’s Elephant to the rescue! Until he sees just…how…BIG that big guy is! It’s all about perspective in this …

Dragonbreath #9: The Case of the Toxic Mutants Ursula Vernon Dial Nominated by: sara the librarian Ursula Vernon is as wackily hilarious as ever in this ninth installment in the Dragonbreath series, featuring Danny Dragonbreath (the only mythical creature in a school of reptiles, who’s still working on his fire-breathing skills), his friend Wendell (complete geek, afflicted with a health …

  Disney Animated written by Disney developed by Disney and Touch Press nominated by Shannon Miller Disney’s animated movies have enchanted families for generations. Now, this richly layered multimedia book app takes readers behind the scenes to see all the different aspects that go into creating animated feature films. Read about the original development of animation, watch Walt Disney talk …

Maureen E., a library assistant and aspiring writer, blogs at By Singing Light, where she participates in Picture Book Monday and has a great list of Historical Fantasies. This year, she is serving as a round one judge in Young Adult fiction and has listed all of her Cybils reviews here.  Charm and Strange, by Stephanie Kuehn, was nominated in …

Jill Goodman reviews book apps for Smart Apps for Kids, a website that has all sorts of information about book apps as well as lists of apps based on age and interest level.  She has this review of Amelia and the Terror of the Night  posted.   "OhNoo has created a masterpiece. The only book app that approaches this level …

Reshama works with several others to create the great blog, Stacking Books, that is meant to help parents and friends to motivate and inspire children to read. She is on the second round panel for Nonfiction/Elementary and Middle Grade, but posted a review on the  Easy Readers/Short Chapter Books nomination Dodsworth in Tokyo by Tim Egan. "This is a delightful …

Brandy Painter blogs at Random Musings of a Bibliophile and is on the Middle Grade Speculative Fiction first round panel this year. She says this about Kristin Kladstrup's Garden Princess: " I am always excited when a new princess tale comes out. I unashamedly love them. Garden Princess by Kristin Kladrup is a lovely new addition to this genre. This …

Last year for the first time, we provided a separate window of time when publishers and authors could submit their own books. From the beginning, we've always allowed publishers and authors to nominate their own books, but there were problems. Our nomination process, especially the "one nomination per person per category" rule, didn't work well for publishers, and there was …

Stephanie Charlefour is a public librarian, specializing in youth and teens in Michigan and blogs at Love.Life.Read. She had this to say about Kiersten White's Mind Games. "I picked this book up on a Sunday morning—not sure what to expect. I read the synopsis and it sounded interesting but I have never read a book by Ms. White. Let me …

Aaron Zenz, a dad and illustrator, harnesses the power of actual members of the Fiction Picture Book demographic on his blog, Bookie Wookie Reviews. Here's what he and his family have to say about Betsy Bird's Giant Dance Party: Isaac (age 14):  “Giant Dance Party.” Lily (age 10):  (singing) Hey, hey, hey, it’s a good book! Gracie (age 12):  When …