What if it felt like everyone in your family was a winner except you? Allie Velasco, the protagonist of Allie, First at Last by Angela Cervantes, comes from an exceptional family–and now it’s time for her to prove herself, too. This Middle Grade Fiction nominee was reviewed by Round 1 judge (and Cybils veteran) Sarah Sammis of the blog Puss …
REVIEW: The Wild Robot
Today’s review is kind of a hybrid–it’s a nominee in the Audiobooks category, but the review is specific to the print version. The reviewer is Adrienne Gillespie, Round 2 Audiobooks judge and blogger at Books & Bassets. The book is The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, a middle grade novel about Roz the robot, who gets stranded on an island …
REVIEW: In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse
Randomly Reading is a book review blog by Middle Grade Fiction Round 2 judge and former 4th grade teacher Alex Baugh; many of us know her from her blog Alex’s Bookshelves/The Children’s War, which focuses on books for young people that include World War II themes. Just last month, she reviewed Middle Grade Fiction nominee In the Footsteps of Crazy …
REVIEW: Ms. Bixby’s Last Day
Our featured review for this first Wednesday in November is a nominee for Middle Grade Fiction, reviewed by Round 2 judge Greg Pattridge. Greg is a teacher, mentor, and writer who blogs about MG books at (what else) Always in the Middle. Over the summer, he reviewed Ms. Bixby’s Last Day by John David Anderson, the author of Sidekicked and …
REVIEW: The Bronze Key [Audiobook]
We are so excited to kick off our new Audiobooks category this year, and what better way to start up this season’s blogger reviews? Our very first review is from Round 1 Audiobooks panelist Jeanene Johnson, who blogs about audiobooks at Got My Book. She has all of her audiobook reviews sorted into lists by title, author, narrator, rating, and …
Cybils 2016: Middle Grade Fiction Judges
Round 1 Karen YinglingMs. Yingling Reads@msyingling Sarah SammisPuss Reboots@pussreboots Jenna GroseFalling Letters@FallingLetters Ryan Hanna Reading Rocks!@rantryan Mindy RigherProper Noun Blog@mindyreads Round 2Alex BaughRandomly Reading@randomlyreading Greg PattridgeAlways in the Middle Valerie BogertSkipping Through the Stacks@MsVal313 Katie McEnaneyThe Logonauts@thelogonauts Yamile MendezProject Middle Grade Mayhem@YamileSMendez
REVIEW: The Blackthorn Key
Brandy Painter of the blog Random Musings of a Bibliophile brings us our review of today’s featured finalist: The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands. Brandy teaches grade school and high school literature and English in Tennessee, and keeps some fantastic YA and middle grade book lists (and links to reviews) on her blog. A few months ago, she reviewed The …
REVIEW: Finding the Worm
Today’s review was written by Round 2 Middle Grade Fiction judge Greg Pattridge, a teacher, consultant and writer who blogs at Always in the Middle. Earlier this year, he reviewed MG Fiction nominee Finding the Worm, the sequel to Twerp by Mark Goldblatt. About this coming-of-age story, Greg said: “This sequel, set in 1969-70, has Julian at age 13 returning to …
REVIEW: Another Kind of Hurricane
The recent news about Hurricane Patricia has got me thinking about the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Ten years out, there were several good books published about that event this year including Middle Grade Fiction nominee Another Kind of Hurricane by Tamara Ellis Smith. Our review comes from first round Middle Grade Fiction judge Debbie, who blogs as The Booksearch. She …
Interview with Dean Pitchford
First off, congrats! Can you tell us a bit about your inspiration for Nickel Bay Nick? DP: Thanks for your kind words of congratulations! My inspiration for NICKEL BAY NICK was actually two-fold: First — the protagonist in my story, Sam Brattle, is 11-years old, but at the age of four, he’d had a heart transplant. For years I had been …