Sunday, February 12, 2012

The Cybils are coming, the Cybils are coming!

I'm so excited to see the announcement of the Cybils winners this week. The Cybils Awards honor children's and young adult books that combine literary excellence with kid appeal. As the Cybils website states, "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."


I love this award because the panelists continually bring to my attention books I hadn't heard of, and they celebrate so much of what I value in children's literature. The Cybils also celebrate many genres of children's literature. There are different awards for graphic novels, poetry and chapter books - all genres that are not typically included in the major children's literature awards.

The panels have been hard at work evaluating the finalists, discussing the merits of each book and making hard choices about which one they all agree upon as the best in its category. The Cybils winners will be announced this Tuesday, February 14th. This year I have had the honor of coordinating the Book App category. We've had fantastic members of each panel, and they've evaluated over 50 book apps. They've considered the stories, the interactive features, the audio narration and the overall kid appeal of these apps. We've had fascinating discussions, and I think we've all learned something from the process.

As Sondra Eklund wrote about over at the ALSC blog, definitely check out the list of Cybils finalists for suggestions on books for your children, students or patrons. Here are the links to the individual categories. And be sure to check in on Tuesday morning for the announcements of the winning books!



Posted by Mary Ann Scheuer at 3:52 PM
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