Today nominations open for the Cybils Awards. The Cybils are the Children’s and Young Adult Blogger’s Literary Awards. The award “aims to recognize the children’s and young adult authors and illustrators whose books combine the highest literary merit and popular appeal”. I don’t usually follow awards, but I appreciate the Cybils because, as a fan of middle-grade and as an aspiring children’s librarian, it’s one that’s actually relevant to my interests.
My Role
I’ve nominated books in the past, but this year I’m stepping up my involvement. I’m excited to have been selected as a panelist for the middle grade fiction category. This means I will be part of the first round group that goes through all nominees for that category and creates a shortlist of five to seven books from which the round two judges will select a winner. There are a number of reasons why I’m excited to take on this role: I look forward to helping find books that deserve the spotlight, discovering some great books I might have missed otherwise, becoming more involved with the MG/YA book blogging community, and learning more about the genre alongside seasoned pros. My fellow panelists are librarians who have been blogging about books a lot longer than I have. Be sure to check out their blogs.
- Karen Yingling @ Ms. Yingling Reads / Twitter
- Ryan Hanna @ Reading Rocks! / Twitter
- Sarah Sammis @ Puss Reboots / Twitter
- Mindy Rhiger @ Proper Noun Blog / Twitter
How to Participate
At the start of this post, I mentioned nominations open today. They remain open until 15 October. Anyone can nominate a book (one nomination per category). There are 11 categories, ranging from board books to young adult fiction to audiobooks. Nominated books must be 1) published in Canada or the USA, 2) between 16 October 2015 and 15 October 2016, and 3) written in English. Books don’t need multiple nominations to make the cut. If you nominate it, it will be considered! You can find out more at the Cybil Awards website.
Have you read any books this year that you think are worth nominating?
Congrats on being selected as a panelist! I find it a bit odd and sad that I do not read much current children’s fiction any more. Last year I made an effort and read the Battle of the Books selections and all the Cybils middle grade SFF finalists, but that was unusual. So I don’t have much to recommend!
One book I HAVE read this year is The Evil Wizard Smallbone by Delia Sherman, which I think should definitely be on the SFF list. But as for realistic fiction – I don’t think I have read anything this year! I will look forward to seeing your selections though.
Thank-you! With all the nominations, I’m realizing I perhaps don’t read as much children’s literature as I thought. I’ll definitely be remedying that in the next three months 😛 Sherman’s book sounds like fun; I’ll have to check it out once I’m done with the MG fiction.
So many! I will post a list of things that haven’t been nominated closer to the deadline. We have a great list so far!