One week, friends! Just one more week until the 2023 CYBILS Awards winners are announced. You probably already added the finalists and winners to your TBR, and that’s cool, but our judges read A LOT of great books that, while not award winners, will definitely be winners with young readers. Yes, even picky tween readers. x See for yourself. Book …
Monday Books | #CYBILS2023 Reviews 2.5.2024
Lions and tigers and cats, oh my. Sorry, we couldn’t resist. But it’s true. Today’s roundup has those three creatures. But there’s more! This list of 2023-nominated books includes include stories of family, friendship, feelings, and, well … see for yourself. And have a FANTASTIC Monday. Book cover and summary excerpt from Goodreads. Click to see more details and reviews. …
#CYBILS2023 The Ones That Got Away – a FRI-YA Edition
Surprise! We’re changing up our FRI-YA review collection with one of our fan favorites: The Ones That Got Away! Laura Fineberg Cooper, who blogs at Writers’ Rumpus was a Round 1 judge in the YA Fiction category; and Sarah Miller, who writes the Can We Read? newsletter at Substack, was a Round 1 judge in Poetry. Summaries excerpted from Goodreads. …
The IN be-TWEEN | #CYBILS2023 Reviews 01.30.2024
ttttt Summaries excerpted from Goodreads. Click the cover to read the full summary, other reviews, and add these books to your TBR. FICTION Jessica @ Cracking the Cover – You might know Chad Morris and Shelly Brown from their previous collaborations. All are strong middle grade novels. I enjoyed them all. But The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry is my favorite. …
Monday Books | #CYBILS2023 Reviews 01.29.2024
This week? Books for all your senses. With a nod to nature: a textured board book (watch out for the cactus) to things we cannot see (hold onto your hat, there’s a breeze today) to where colors come from! And a nod to creativity, ingenuity, and family: There are makers and artists, a party planner, birthdays to celebrate, and some …
Monday Books | #CYBILS2023 Reviews 01.22.2024
What do we have this Monday? Lots of questions, mistaken identities, extraordinary animal award winners, an enchanted forest, a tall tale, and oh, a skunk for Valentines Day! Summary excerpted from Goodreads. Click book cover to see full summary and more reviews. Board Book Brooke @ Goodreads – A board book introduction to space that has a simple section (which rhymes) …
The IN be-TWEEN | #CYBILS2023 Reviews 01.17.24
We won’t keep you … there are a lot of fascinating, I-want-to-read-that books on the list. Including a novel in verse!! One thing we will also want to point out is that several reviewers recommended listening to the audio editions … and not just fiction! Summaries excerpted from Goodreads. Click the book cover to go to see more details. Middle-Grade …
Monday Books | #CYBILS2023 Reviews 1.8.24
It’s time to get back to the books … the #CYBILS2023 books, that is. We’ve introduced the finalists for each of the categories. Truth is, they are a small portion of the books that readers nominated and believe are CYBILS worthy. So we’re going to keep going. If a reader nominated it and a (round 1) judge wrote a review, …
SpecFic Saturday | #CYBILS2023 Book Reviews 12.30.2023
Alrighty friends and bookworms! We are here. The last collection of book reviews for 2023. We’re shifting gears and polishing up the finalist lists, which will be announced Monday, 1 January 2024 at 9:00 am Pacific Time | 12:00 pm Eastern Time. So let’s dive in! Summary excerpts come from Goodreads. Click the cover to add this book to your …
Fiction Fri YA | #CYBILS2023 Book Reviews 12.29.2023
It was a dark and stormy night … or should we say a dark and stormy life? Today’s reviews feature characters dealing with different kinds of darkness. The Black Queen is a YA murder mystery. Duchess Simmons is sure she knows who killed her best friend, and she’s determined to “go to the dark side” [befriending her prime suspect] to prove …