The Cybils Award Winners have been announced!

Happy Valentines' Day!
And here's a gift - The Cybils Award winning books - a list of the best children's books of the year as chosen by a group of book bloggers.

The Cybils Award is a new-ish award devised by these bloggers to focus on the best books of the year that children would enjoy.  Their criteria is different from the American Library Association's awards. The ALA committees look for the 'most distinguished' books of the year ignoring child-appeal whereas the Cybils committees take child-appeal into account.  Would a child really enjoy reading this book? And why?

Here's the official definition about how this all works:

 judges engaged in a three month marathon of reading and judging, and selected these titles as the ones that best meet our twin criteria of literary merit and kid appeal. Judges were allowed to select no more than seven titles in each category, which really makes these the “best of the best.” 

A second panel of judges in each category then read the finalists to select one winner per category. Winners are announced on February 14, our valentine to the book world.

Time to nominate your favorite books for the CYBIL Awards

It's that time of year again! 
The public nomination period for this year's CYBIL Awards (Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards, now in their 8th year) is now through Oct 15th. You may nominate one book in each of the many categories.

How the Cybils work:
Any children's or YA book published in the U.S. between 10/15/2012 and 10/15/2013 (first U.S. publication only, not reprints) is eligible for nomination. This includes self-published books. Click on this link for the Cybils nomination site to find where to nominate books.

First-round panelists will read ALL nominated books and compile a shortlist in each category. These shortlists are valuable tools for librarians and parents. (You may view past shortlists on the Cybils website.)

In January, second-round panelists will choose one winner from the shortlisted books in each category.

Since all Cybils judges are bloggers, there will be many reviews and social media discussion of nominated books along the way. That's why just being nominated can be a boost to your book: you know a team of bloggers will be reading it!

After the Oct 15 deadline, there will be a small window of time during which authors and publishers may nominate their own books.

What are your favorite 2013 books? (Or late 2012.) 
Don't be shy!
 Let's get those books in front of these smart, experienced readers' eyes!

Cybils Finalists Announced

Read these 2011 Cybils finalists and be inspired to write books like them.