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.

Why was your favorite book Not Chosen

Yesterday we all cheered for the books receiving one of the American Library Association's highest awards - Newbery/ Caldecott/ Sibert/ Corretta Scott King/ etc.

Today you might be wondering why your favorite book didn't get one of these coveted award seals. To answer this question, I suggest you go visit Monica Edinger's excellent blog post at the Nerdy Book Club blog.

But more awards are coming.  I suggest you also follow the Cybils Award website.

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.

Cybils Award Shortlist announced

This just in:
Jen Robinson ( Jen Robinson's Book Page) just announced that the judges have come up with the shortlists for the Cybils Award. Just click on this link to find the shortlist. :

The Cybils Award is given to those books that the online BLOGGERS community think are the best books of the year, that is, published in 2008. You may find a lot of your own favorite titles here. Plus, it makes a great buying guide for late Holiday gifts or birthdays or for just no reason at all. The formatted, printable (if you have MS Word) lists will be available soon.

Happy New Year, everyone!
-wendie O

Cybils Award Nominations Needed

(Guest Blogger)
Spread the word -- the annual Bloggers Children's Book Award is underway.
In an effort to highlight great books that children like to read (that may be missed by the various literary award committees), the Cybils award was created. Publishers, librarians, and bookstores are beginning to take notice of this award.

Cybils Nominations Open October 1st: How Can You Participate?

Nominations for the third annual Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (the Cybils) will be open Wednesday, October 1st through Wednesday, October 15th. The goal of the Cybils team (some 100 bloggers) is to highlight books that are high in both literary quality and kid appeal. The Cybils were founded by Anne Boles Levy and Kelly Herold.

This year, awards will be given in nine categories (Easy Readers, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Novels, Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, Young Adult Novels). Anyone can nominate books in these categories (one nomination per person per category). (Yes, you can nominate your own book.) Nominated titles must be published between January 1st and October 15th of this year, and the books must be in English (or bilingual, where one of the languages is English).

To nominate titles, visit the Cybils blog between October 1st and 15th. A separate post will be available for each category - simply nominate by commenting on those individual posts. If you are not sure which category to choose for a particular book, a questions thread will also be available.

Between October 16th and January 1st, Cybils panelists (children’s and young adult bloggers) will winnow the nominations down to a 5-7 book short list for each category. A second set of panelists will then select the winning titles for the different categories. The winners will be announced on February 14th, 2009.

The Cybils lists, from long lists to short lists to the lists of winners, offer a wonderful resource to anyone looking for high-quality, kid-friendly books. The Cybils team has worked hard to balance democracy (anyone can nominate titles) with quality control (two rounds of panel judging by people who focus on children’s books every day). We do this work because we consider it vital to get great books into the hands of children and young adults.

How Can You Participate?

We think that the Cybils nominations will be of interest to parents, teachers, librarians, writers, and teens. If you have a blog or an email list or belong to a newsgroup that serves one of these populations, and you feel that your readers would be interested, please consider distributing this announcement (you are welcome to copy it). The Cybils team would very much appreciate your help in spreading the word. And if you, or the children that you know, have any titles to suggest, we would love to see your nominations at the Cybils blog, starting on Wednesday. Thanks for your help, and stay tuned for further news!

Jen Robinson
Literacy Evangelist for the 2008 Cybils