Cybils 2009 – let the fun begin!

Today is the day! It’s launch day for the 2009 Cybils Awards. This is always an exciting day in the kidlitosphere, as readers far and wide begin to nominate their favourite titles of the last year in all sorts of categories. Then, over the next few months, expert panels of kidlit bloggers and reviewers whittle the nominations down to a group of finalists and judges choose the winning titles in the New Year. Pure bookish fun. It’s all about celebrating titles that have true kid appeal and outstanding literary merit. I’m happy to be the category organizer and one of the judges in Middle Grade Fiction this year. Read my snazzy bio here. I am thrilled to introduce the fantastic crew working with me this year. Tah dah!

Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Panelists 2009

Becky Laney Becky’s Book Reviews
Melissa Fox Book Nut
Sherry Early Semicolon
Sarah Mulhern The Reading Zone
Sandra Stiles Musings of a Book Addict
Kyle Kimmal The Boy Reader
Abby Johnson Abby the Librarian

Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Judges 2009

Moi (blogging right here, right now)
Monica Edinger Educating Alice
Stacy Dillon Welcome to My Tweendom
David Elzey The Excelsior File
Kimberly Baker Wagging Tales

But… nothing’s going to happen unless everyone out there in the ether nominates some titles. So step up! This is what you do:

1) Go to the Cybils blog.

2) You will find the nifty new Nominations Form that will make nominating titles super simple and avoid the headaches of duplicate nominations. (Go Cybils computer-genius Sheila for inventing said form! We bow to your powers!)

3) Nominate one title per category only. The title must be a book that was published after October 15th 2008 to the end of this year’s nomination period, October 15th 2009. This time frame was new last year, so be sure to cast your minds back to all of those wonderful titles published in late 2008. I’ve already got a few in mind. I haven’t forgotten you!

4) Check the Cybils blog for lots of cool posts from here on in.

*doing a happy Cybils dance*

Let the fun begin!

Cybils 2009 Needs You!

It’s almost Cybils season again and I’m getting super excited already! In case you’re not in the know, the Cybils are the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards, presented annually. Here’s what the Cybils are all about, quoted straight from the Cybils site, where the magic is managed:

“Our purpose is two-fold:

* Reward the children’s and young adult authors (and illustrators – let’s not forget them) whose books combine the highest literary merit and “kid appeal.” What’s that mean? If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussel sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious.
* Foster a sense of community among bloggers who write about children’s and YA literature, highlight our best reviewers (and shamelessly promote their blogs) and provide a forum for the similarly obsessed.”

So it’s all about highlighting the best books loved by kids and critics alike, all the while promoting the many outstanding blogs in the kidlitosphere.

It’s getting to be the time when the panelist and judging committees for every category are getting organized. If you blog about kids’ and/or YA books, and you’re interested (it is LOTS of fun, I promise!) then you can check out all of the details on applying for the job here and here.

If judging isn’t your bag, but you’d still like to be involved, you can make it all happen by nominating in every single Cybils category beginning on October 1st, 2009. Just keep your eye on the Cybils blog for every detail you’ll need.

(F.Y.I. I’ve heard the Middle Grade Fiction organizer this year is a cool gal, just in case you’re wondering which category to sign up for )

The Graveyard Book

What can a girl really say about a Newbery/Cybils award-winning book that hasn’t already been said by other mega-fans? Pretty much the whole children’s lit universe is in love with The Graveyard Book, and let me tell you, I get it. I wouldn’t have imagined it possible to love a Neil Gaiman book as much as Stardust or Coraline, but I think this one may even nudge past those two very beloved books. I mentioned last week that Neil was whispering the story in my ear late at night (thanks to the miracle of the audiobook. By the way, the audiobook is up for two Audies, according to the author over at his journal ). Well, I listened to the last little bit of the story a few nights ago, and the very first thing I did (after sighing and pressing my Ipod to my heart), was race out to the bookstore to grab a copy so that I could see the illustrations. Then I pressed the book to my heart and sighed for a while. Love it. A lot.

Even though it’s most unlikely that Mr. Gaiman would ever venture over here to my teensy corner of blog-land, I’d like to send out this thank you to him, just the same.

Thank you for finding a way to write a story full of creepiness and fantasy, and life and crypts, and epitaphs and goodbyes and ghosts (oh… and hounds of god. We like those too.).

5 Headstones out of 5.

Cybils 2008 Winners

The winners of 2008 Cybil Awards have just been announced over at the Cybils site. How exciting! I look at this list of winners and I can’t help but think that 2008 was a cracker year for books: The Hunger Games, The Graveyard Book, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and toss in a little Naomi Shihab Nye and Mo Willems and Shannon Hale and wowza! It’s like everybody who’s anybody is on this Cybils list.

I’d like to post here the description of the winning book in the category I was organizing and helping to judge: Middle Grade Fiction. This year’s winner is Siobhan Dowd’s, The London Eye Mystery. Here’s our teaser:

Brother and sister, Ted and Kat, take their cousin Salim to see the London Eye, the city’s gigantic Ferris wheel. While Ted and Kat watch, Salim gets into one of the glass pods, but thirty minutes later he doesn’t get off. So the siblings set out to find their cousin. Complicating the situation, Ted’s brain “runs on a different operating system” from other people’s, which makes him a lot better at facts and figures than he is at reading people. Narrated in Ted’s voice, this is a page-turner that brings London to life and takes readers inside a powerfully rational mind. The London Eye Mystery shows off kids’ natural ingenuity and proves that difference can be a strength, as Ted and Kat work to solve the irresistible riddle of their cousin’s disappearance.

I enjoyed Dowd’s book immensely, and I think many kids will feel the same way. It’s exciting and clever, narrated by an engaging and unusual kid and it offers readers a look into a quirky, and extraordinarily real-seeming family. I remember when I put down the book after reading it, I immediately felt so sad that we won’t be seeing any more stories from Siobhan Dowd, who died very young in August 2007. This book inspired me to read Dowd’s YA title, A Swift Pure Cry, further proof of her outstanding talent for storytelling. The London Eye Mystery will make you want to visit London and fly the Eye for yourself, and you’ll root for Ted and Kat as they put their natural sleuthing skills to the test.

It wasn’t easy to choose a winner in our category, as all of the titles offer something so different and worthy to this age group. I hope many kids read the other finalists: Diamond Willow (Helen Frost), Alvin Ho (Lenore Look), Shooting the Moon (Frances O’Roark Dowell) and Every Soul a Star (Wendy Mass).

A huge thank you again to the wonderful group of MG Fiction panelists and my fellow judges, who all worked very hard (and read even harder) to whittle many fantastic reads down to one winning title. It was a treat working with all of you and getting to chat and share opinions about such fine writing. Cybils 4-ever!

Middle Grade Fiction Panelists
Sarah Mulhern, The Reading Zone
Alysa Stewart, Everead
Mary R. Voors, ACPL Mock Newbery
Sherry Early, Semicolon
Kim Baccellia
Melissa Fox, Book Nut
Matthew Wigdahl, The Book Club Shelf

Middle Grade Fiction Judges
Kelly Herold, Big A little a
Eric Berlin
J.L. Bell, Oz and Ends
Kerry Millar, Shelf Elf (go me!)
Julie M. Prince, Off to Turn Another Page

Cybils Finalists Announced

It’s a big day in the kitlitosphere! The finalists for the 2008 Cybils awards have been announced! Since I’m a judge for the Middle Grade Fiction category, I present first the “Fabulous Five” finalists in MG fiction:

Alvin Ho- Lenore Look

Diamond Willow – Helen Frost

Every Soul a Star - Wendy Mass

Shooting the Moon - Frances O’Roark Dowell

The London Eye Mystery – Siobhan Dowd

This is an awesome list. I think it represents all that the Cybils stands for – literary merit and kid appeal. I can’t wait to dig into these titles and help to choose our winner.

Congratulations to all of the nominees and to our finalists! A giant shout out to the marvelous Middle Grade Fiction Panelists who read about a kazillion books and gave this list so much thought and care.

For the complete list of finalists, in all categories, visit the Cybils blog. The best of the best.

(photo © Natthawut Kulnirundorn for openphoto.net CC:Attribution-ShareAlike)

Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet

If a novel involves food, it automatically jumps up a few notches on my reading-enjoyment scale. So naturally, I’ve been interested to read Sherri L. Smith’s book, Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet since I first heard about it a few months ago.

As the title suggests, Smith’s novel centres around yummy things, specifically how different tastes play around together to make complex dishes and interesting cuisines. Ana Shen, the central character, is herself a blend of cultures and histories, as her mother is African American and her father is Chinese American. Her Social Studies teacher calls Ana’s family, “marvelously biracial” and “multicultural.” Ana’s just Ana, and she doesn’t think too much about how interesting she might be to anyone else, but she does sometimes think about how complicated it is to have grandparents who just don’t seem to “get” each other, and who barely disguise their judgments of one another whenever they’re together.

Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet takes place in a single day, the day of Ana’s eighth grade graduation. Her Grandma and Grandpa and her Nai Nai and Ye Ye are in town to mark the occasion, which means Ana is just a little nervous about the possibility of impending arguments or at the very least, some serious tension. At the same time, she’s anticipating the grad dance, and in particular, dancing with her crush, Jamie Tabata. After a minor disaster during the graduation ceremony leads to the cancellation of the dance, Ana ends up planning her own party at the last minute, including a dinner that will be prepared by various members of her family. She’s not sure how everyone is going to work together to make this happen, but in only four hours, Jamie Tabata and his parents will be joining them for a home-cooked feast, Shen-style.

What’s great about Sherri Smith’s book is that it feels like you’re taking a look inside a typical family’s home, watching them cooking and arguing and trying to say what they mean but not always getting it right. There is a very natural tone throughout that makes you feel like you completely get the relationships between Ana and her parents and her grandparents. She loves them. They love her. They drive her crazy. She’s tired of being the mediator, always trying to smooth things over between her sets of grandparents. In some ways, it seems like she wishes she could change them. I liked how these relationships were portrayed as messy and complicated but in the end, essentially strong and supportive.

In case you’re wondering, the book is not a hit-you-over-the-head exploration of identity and what it’s like to be caught between cultures. These themes are there, but really the book looks at Ana’s uncertainty at a time of change in her life, as she moves towards a new school and new experiences. She wonders about her future, and she wonders about where she comes from, but she also wonders if she’s going to get her first kiss anytime soon and whether or not she should dye her hair. That’s real life. The small questions and the bigger ones. You’ll find both in Sherri Smith’s book. You’ll also probably find yourself wanting some fried chicken and gumbo and pork dumplings too. Be warned.

Visit Sherri L. Smith’s website for more about her and her books, and you’ll find a Reading Guide for this title there too.

Book Trailer Bonanza

For your viewing pleasure, a few book trailers for a couple of the Cybils 2008 Nominees for MG Fiction:

And that’s just 5 of them people. Serious competition.

Cybils Snapshot: 3 from MG

Since I’m a MG Fiction judge for the 2008 Cybils Awards, I’m not supposed to review titles that have been nominated until the first round judges have decided on finalists. This makes my life a little tricky, since of course, I’m trying to read as many of the nominated titles as I can, just to be informed, but I’m not allowed to review them. Curses. A girl has to have something she can blog about, and there are only so many hours in the day to read books. So I’ve decided there’s no harm in giving readers a snapshot look at some of the Cybils- nominated titles as I read my way along. Not reviews, think of these as three-sentence summaries of some of the books up for consideration for the MG fiction prize this year. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to read a couple:

Addy McMahon wants to be a writer and she’s been creating her “autobiogra-strip” and her trademark interviews in order to get better and better with words. One problem – she’s pretty sure she’s cursed and all sorts of things start going wrong at home and at school to prove it. For aspiring artists and kids who like stories that capture real-life.

Set in Louisiana in the desperate years of the Depression, Tennyson is the moody and dreamy tale of the mysterious, long-suffering Fontaine family and their once-grand plantation, Aigredoux. After a family crisis, Tennyson Fontaine and her sister Hattie end up living at Aigredoux, discovering its secret history, and Tennyson learns that it could be her fate to restore her family’s fortunes. For readers who love mystery and history and family stories.

The Willoughby children detest their parents and their parents detest them. Desperate to become orphans, the children hatch a plan to make their dream come true, proving themselves resourceful and winsome and every bit as worthy as the characters they admire from old-fashioned books. Made for quirky and clever readers who gobble up stories by Lemony Snicket and Roald Dahl.

Those are just 3 of the titles nominated for a Cybils award in the MG Fiction category this year. View the rest here.

Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning

Now here’s a sweet book (and a 2008 Cybils MG Fiction nominated title too!) This ARC has been hiding in one of my many piles since summer, and I was inspired to pick it up because it was the very first nomination in the MG fiction Cybils category this year.

This is a true Middle Grade title. Just right for tween readers. Violet Raines lives in small town Florida with her mom. She’s had the same best friend, Lottie, for ages, and she’s been hanging around with her good friend Eddie since forever too. Violet’s life is filled with happy rituals. Every week she goes to the fish fry with Lottie, and hangs out with Lottie’s family, helping with the cooking. She spends summer afternoons with Eddie, hunting for Brain Freeze cups to return to the gas station to get free drinks. She collects intriguing words from the newspaper and stores them in an old shoebox in the china cabinet. Violet is happy and she likes things just the way they are. Of course, that’s not how it’s going to stay, because she’s about to start growing up just like everyone else. The growing up begins when Melissa, a prissy city girl, moves to town. Melissa cares about everything that Violet doesn’t – boys, movie stars, make up, clothes. It isn’t long before Melissa is horning in on Violet’s friendship with Lottie, and shaking up Violet’s reliable existence.

This story reminded me in a lot of ways of Caroline Hickey’s Cassie Was Here (which just so happens to have been a title nominated in the MG fiction category last year). Both books are friendship stories, about girls who aren’t quite ready for the changes that adolescence will bring, who just want time to stand still for a little longer. Then along comes someone who forces change to happen. Both books are quiet. They sort of sneak up on you. They’re not flashy or overly sentimental. They’re just simple stories with characters you believe in. I liked Violet’s tomboyishness, her quick humour and her loyalty. She’s a smart cookie, with a good soul.

I’d happily put this in the hands of any Grade 5 girl. Here’s hoping that there are lots more titles just as worthy in the very long and ever-growing list of Cybils nominations.

Other Reviews:

Literate Lives
Kate Messner’s Blog
Welcome to My Tweendom
The Reading Zone

And Danette Haworth has a website and a lovely blog.

Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightning is published by Walker Books.

Cybils 2008 – Squeeeee!

Today was the big day people. That would be Day One of the Cybils 2008. Squeeeee! The fun has begun. For those unfamiliar with the Cybils award, the prizes are awarded by kidlitosphere bloggers to the most outstanding books (nominated by YOU and other readers out there) published in all sorts of categories this year. So you can head on over to the Cybils blog to nominate one title per category. There are a few eensy rules that you need to understand prior to nominating, so read them here. Simple, yes?

Last year I was thrilled to be a panelist on the Middle Grade Fiction team, and this year, I am double thrilled to be back in the same category as a judge and… The Category Organizer! Awesome. So, not to be all focused on Middle Grade Fiction or anything… but get over there and leave your nomination in my category people! We want all the delicious reads we can get. Here’s a teaser of my description of the MG category:

“The middle grade years are those with the most potential to turn a child into a reader for life. It’s often the books you read between the ages of 8-12 that you remember long into adulthood as your dearest books of all. These are the years when kids really and truly start to figure themselves out as readers–their likes and dislikes and all the rest in between. It’s during this time when children strike out on their own in earnest, reading for themselves and by themselves, all the while creating themselves.” (read the rest here and then drop off your favourite Middle Grade Fiction title published in 2008).

I am happy to present the talented and discerning Middle Grade team:

Panelists:

Sarah Mulhern The Reading Zone
Alysa Stewart Everead
Mary R. Voors ACPL Mock Newbery
Sherry Early Semicolon
Kim Baccellia
Melissa Fox Book Nut
Matthew Wigdahl The Book Club Shelf

Judges:

Kelly Herold Big A little a
Eric Berlin
J.L. Bell Oz and Ends
(moi) Shelf Elf
Julie M. Prince Off to Turn Another Page

Go gang!