Though today’s featured review is a nominee from the YA Nonfiction category, our spotlighted blogger is none other than Karen Yingling, category organizer for Middle Grade Fiction. Her blog, Ms. Yingling Reads, highlights great books for middle schoolers, especially boys. Karen is a middle school librarian as well as a reviewer for School Library Journal and YA Books Central, so …
REVIEW: All the Bright Places
Jenn Hubb, who blogs at Lost in a Great Book, is a self-described proud geek, lifelong book lover, and teacher-librarian in Ontario, Canada, as well as a Round 1 judge for YA Fiction this year. Earlier in the year she reviewed YA Fiction nominee All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, which has been ambitiously described as “The Fault in …
REVIEW: Manga Classics: The Scarlet Letter
Today we’re featuring a review by Round 1 Graphic Novels judge Nicola Mansfield, who keeps her primary blog at Back to Books but also writes about comics and graphic novels on It’s All Comic to Me. She also hosts the blog Graphic Novels Challenge. Earlier this fall, she brought her expertise to bear on teen GN nominee Manga Classics: The …
REVIEW: Denton Little’s Death Date
Today’s review features a nominee from the YA Speculative Fiction category: Denton Little’s Death Date by Lance Rubin. It was reviewed earlier this year by Allie Jones of In Bed With Books, a Cybils regular and Round 1 judge this year in YASF. She is a technical writer and self-confessed nerd who reviews books from a variety of genres. About …
REVIEW: Chernobyl’s Wild Kingdom: Life in the Dead Zone
Louise Capizzo of The Nonfiction Detectives is one of our YA Nonfiction judges this year. She’s not only a Cybils returnee, but also a youth services manager in a public library in Maine and a tireless enthusiast for nonfiction books written for young readers. She reviewed YA Nonfiction nominee Chernobyl’s Wild Kingdom: Life in the Dead Zone by Rebecca L. Johnson …
REVIEW: Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda
Many of us know and love Cybils veteran Leila Roy from her long-running blog Bookshelves of Doom, or from her reviews as a columnist for Kirkus. This year she’s lending her expertise as a Round 1 judge for YA Fiction, and back in February she reviewed YA Fiction nominee Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda for her Kirkus column. This …
Young Adult Fiction Category Description
The world as it was and is. Not as it could, or would, or should be. Send the dystopias and space operas, the fairies and angels, the blood-suckers, zombies, and alternate realities to Seculative Fiction. In YA Fiction we are looking for realistic fiction, be it contemporary or historical, funny or mysterious, romantic or adventurous. We want the real world …
Young Adult Speculative Fiction Category Description
Speculative Fiction takes us to realms of the imagination: places and times and realities where the rules of life may be different than our own and where the impossible and improbable become real. But good science fiction and fantasy does more than that: it asks, “What if?” It makes us think. It holds up a mirror to our own society …
YA Nonfiction Category Description
Young Adult Nonfiction is experiencing a boon in great books. It is true that there is definitely more interest in great nonfiction, especially if you have a child in school, and that school district uses common core. Not known for being as glamorous as the fiction categories, for this librarian, great nonfiction is as much of a treat as any fiction book on any …
2015 YA Speculative Fiction Judges
Round 1 Sheila Ruth @sheilaruth Wands and Worlds Kim Baccelia @ixtumea Si, Se Puede Maureen Eichner @elvenjaneite By Singing Light Kimberly Francisco @kimberlymarief Stacked Books Allie Jones @wearedevilcow In Bed With Books Cindy Hannikman Fantasy Book Critic Kaye M. @gildedspine Watercolor Moods Round 2 Pam Margolis @Pamlovesbooks An Unconventional Librarian Tanita Davis Finding Wonderland Sarah Stevenson @aquafortis …