How to use this Page

Part of a series introducing each genre, written by the organizer.

The category of Fiction Picture Books would appear clearcut as books that are fictional with pictures. Oh, but that simplicity is deceptive. The genre contains titles for toddlers and third graders, funny stories and moving tales, history and fantasy, traditions and diversity, elegance and silliness, education and entertainment. An amazing conceptual range for books with typically 32 to 48 pages.

All these types of books must be weighed against each other to create a Cybils shortlist of standouts that excel in story, illustration, kid appeal and literary value. Not-so-simple a task in not-so-simple a category, but at end of the Cybils judging, we plan to bring you some of the best in fiction picture books and a final winner to represent them all.

--Pamela Coughlan

Part of a series introducing each genre, written by the organizer.

The first thing that stands out about books in these two genres is their shape. They're sized for their audience to hold while reading aloud (roughly 6 x 9 inches). Think "reading by nine" and you can visualize this K through 3 audience. Other helpful hints:

Easy Readers usually have a banner and some form of the word "read" on the cover. They have short, simple sentences presented in BIG type fonts. In an Easy Reader, the images are usually in full color and are designed to help the child decode the words in the text.

Early Chapter Books are like traditional chapter books, but thinner and with fewer pages. Their chapters are short (usually 3-6 pages), are illustrated (usually black and white), and have wide spacing between lines. Examples: Clementine by Sara Pennypacker; Roscoe Riley Rules by Katherine Applegate; My Weird School by Dan Gutman.

--Terry Doherty

Part of our series introducing each genre, written by the organizer.

Comics FTW! The graphic novels category covers a wide range of stories--everything from wordless picture books appealing to the very young to intense, issue-based young adult novels--all of which tell their stories through serial artwork. All of these stories are welcome. We give an award for both the younger graphics and for the young adult graphics.

In the past, we've been fairly strict about limiting the category so that there are not big chunks of text between the comic panels--books that take this shape are considered to be hybrid illustrated novels rather than graphic novels, and go to the category they'd belong in if they didn't have the images.

But what if the images are an essential part of the story? What if the book won't do as well in the other category, simply because the text, by itself, doesn't have the same power as the book as a whole? This is something which our group has discussed, and fretted about, for awhile now.

So this year, we're going to experiment with adding some hybrid illustrated novels, with the goal of having every book placed in the category where it stands the best chance of winning. Hybrids we'll allow in graphics are books where the pictures are essential to the storytelling, and where most of the story is in the comics format, with occasional chunks of text.

One final thing--if the hybrid you're nominating is an early reader (the Toon books, or Frankie Pickle, from past years), go ahead and nominate it in that category. Early readers often combine images and text, due to the needs of the readers, so this is a category where hybrid graphics are a great fit.

Can't wait to read your choices!

--Liz Jones

Part of our series introducing each genre, written by the organizer.

Welcome to the Nonfiction Middle Grade & YA category.  Nonfiction is defined as work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be FACT.  For Middle Grade and Young Adult, these books are often biographies and histories, but can also encompass a wide range of subjects.  There are teen travel guides, how-to books, etc.

With nonfiction, clarity is important. But even more  vital for the middle grade and young adult reader is the level of engagement and kid appeal.  The book must be engaging and interesting.  No one wants to read a dry book, no matter how true it is.  They might HAVE to read it for homework, but they'd never pick it up on their own at a library or bookstore.  So along with great factual information, we're looking for great storytelling.

--Gina Ruiz

Part of a series to introduce each genre, written by the organizer.

Welcome to Middle Grade Fiction, a category that is very often magical, sometimes action-packed, and sure to be crowd-pleasing. (Note: we're talking about magic without spells and wizards and elves and vampires, and action without the superheroes plus superpowers. Just to be clear). Middle Grade Fiction is where you'll find stories about the real drama of real life faced by kids and their friends, families, classrooms, and communities.

Set right next door or in a distant corner of the globe, Middle Grade Fiction can offer readers a mirror or a window, helping them to make sense of their experiences or open them up to things they may never know in their own lives. These are the books that kids will likely remember as the ones that turned them into readers for life. Excited yet? Now's your chance to tell us which Middle Grade novel published this year made you laugh or cry or cheer or turn back to the beginning to start reading all over again.

--Kerry Millar

Another in our series introducing each genre, written by the organizer.

The world as it was and is. Not as it could, or would, or should be.  Send the dystopias and space operas, the fairies and angels, the blood-suckers, zombies, and alternate realities to SFF. In YA Fiction we want the real world of the past and present with all of its flaws and pain and humor and beauty. We want books published for young adults ages 12-18 that are not only well-written, but which will expose the world and open a window to self-discovery. Books that respect their audience; books that teens will press into their friends' hands with fervor in their eyes and say, "You HAVE to read this." We are looking for the handful that can call themselves the greatest teen novels of 2011.

--Jackie Parker-Robinson

Another in our series introducing each genre, written by the organizer.

Boing! Zoom! Zap! Is that your book making all those noises? Are you making things dance, bounce and sing? You must be reading a Book App, maybe on your smart phone or iPad.

Digital publishing is certainly changing the way we experience books, but we’ve been especially fascinated by the development of interactive book apps. These are not just ebooks like those you would read on a Kindle. Book Apps are highly interactive programs that integrate animation, games, audio, music--or all of the above--into the text.

With this first year of the Cybils Book App category, we’ll be focusing on Book Apps developed for the iPad/iPhone and sold through the iTunes App Store. Although Motorola and Samsung have also come out with tablet computers, we can only ask our judges to have one device for viewing. The majority of apps are available through the iTunes App Store, so this will be our focus this year.

The Book App category will look at a wide range of book apps, from picture books to chapter books to nonfiction titles. The apps must geared mainly toward storytelling and/or literacy and not just gaming. And like all of the other Cybils categories, children must be the book’s primary audience. Cybils establishes the criteria that all eligible books must be published between Oct. 16, 2010 to Oct. 15, 2011. For apps, this means that the original app must have been published during this time, not just the most recent updates. Finally, since our panelists won’t be able to find apps in their libraries, we will only be able to evaluate apps when developers can send us codes for review copies.

What makes a great app for you and your children? What brings your children back again and again? We can’t wait to explore this new and constantly changing world of Book Apps!

-- Mary Ann Scheuer

Peeee-pull! Some of you have NOT read the rools that clearly state you don't need to KEEP nominating the same book or app over and over and freaking over.

Stop that right now.

Did you hear me?

This isn't a popularity contest. You don't get to vote. You get to nominate. We wouldn't need judges otherwise, would we? And what have we been posting for lo this last week ... lists of judges!

So stop. Before we get really, really mad.

Easy, step-by-step instructions for not pissing us off:

1. Check the nominations first.
2. They're in the sidebar. By genre. Alphabetically. 
3. Check them again.
4. If you see a title you love already listed ... back away slowly.
5. Think of a different title to nominate.
6. Resume nominating.

You're welcome.

-Anne

Nominations for the 2011 Cybils open just after the stroke of midnight (Pacific time) as Friday turns into Saturday. Check your list of favorite new books and get ready, everyone.

But -- uh oh -- we've had some serious changes in our eligibility rules.

Yes, we've gotten so big and la-di-da we can be a bit pickier now. The rules are actually designed to make life easier for our panelists. I get very antsy when I learn they have to shell out their own money or go to great hassle to obtain review copies. I want this to be easy for them, but unfortunately that means a few extra hurdles for everyone else.

New eligibility rules are below the jump. Thanks in advance for your careful reading.

--Anne Levy, Cybils admin.

Books (eBook criteria follow):

To be eligible for a Cybils award, a print book must be:

1. published in the US or Canada only. This avoids outrageous shipping costs and double jeopardy when a UK title is nominated a second time after it comes out in the US;
2. published between one contest and the next. For this year, that means from Oct. 16, 2010 to Oct. 15, 2011;
3. widely available for public sale. Titles available only from book clubs or publisher websites are not eligible, for example, as we cannot obtain copies easily.
4. aimed at the youth market up to age 18. Books marketed to adult readers that may also appeal to teens are not eligible.

eBooks

Note: This applies only to "born digital" ebooks that have no dead-tree counterpart.

To be eligible for a Cybils award, a born digital ebook must be:

1. published in both the Kindle and ePub format. It can be published in additional formats (such as PDF), but cannot skip those two;
2. marketed primarily to Young Adult Fiction and Science Fiction & Fantasy readers. No other genre is accepting born digital titles this year. We'll revisit the idea if all goes well;
3. put out by a publisher in good standing with the American Booksellers Association (ABA), Children's Book Council (CBC), Publishers Marketing Association (PMA), or Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN);
4. put out by a publisher who produces more than one title a year;

Book Apps

To be eligible for a Cybils award, a book app must be:

1. aimed primarily at kids or teens;
2. geared mainly toward storytelling and/or literacy and not just gaming;
3. be readable on an iPad or computer.

We know the rules are more complicated. Technology makes for some new issues, but also incredibly exciting opportunities. Also, I may be updating this list as organizers recall other eligibility issues we've discussed, but I think this is pretty comprehensive.

Thank you for joining us this year!

that Amulet of Amon-Ra is up for an award? Well, it is.

Leslie Carmichael's book has been nominated for a Prix Aurora Award from the Canadian Science Fiction/Fantasy community. Kind of like the Nebula's here, this is a big deal thing up north of the US border.

For more information or to vote, click here.

Congratulations Leslie!

© Copyright 2006-2010 Madeline Smoot. All rights reserved. May be excerpted and duplicated for educational purposes.

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

You'll find no dragons or magic, robots or vampires here. Just real people, in the real world, in real situations. In a good YA novel teens will find themselves and discover their world. A great YA novel will do both of those while respecting and appealing to its audience.

We are looking for a handful of the greatest teen novels of 2009. Historical, humorous, or contemporary, they must have literary merit AND a lasting effect on their readers; something teens will press into their friends' hands with fervor in their eyes and say, "You HAVE to read this book."

--Jackie Parker, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

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.

In this Cybils category, we're looking for the 2009 novels that capture real life in all of its wonderful messiness. So we're not talking magic or superheroes or werewolves or elves. Instead, think adventures and school stories, mysteries and stories about families, and tales that tell kids of life across the globe. Tell us which of the Middle Grade fiction titles published this year you think kids will still be talking about when they're all grown up.

--Kerry Millar, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

Science fiction and fantasy takes us to realms of the imagination: places and times and realities where the rules of life may be different than our own and where the impossible and improbable become real. But good science fiction and fantasy does more than that: it asks, "What if?" It makes us think. It holds up a mirror to our own society and lets us see ourselves in a different light.

Like our counterparts in the other categories, we'll be looking for books that combine the best writing with kid or teen appeal, but we'll also be looking at some of the unique requirements of the genre, such as world building and internal consistency. The elements in a science fiction or fantasy book don't have to be possible, but the writer must make us believe that they really could exist, perhaps do exist, if only we could find them.

This is a diverse category that includes a wide range of subjects, from wizards, demons and vampires to outer space adventures, alternate history, and dystopian futures. If a book has any unreal, otherworldly, or mystical elements in it, chances are that it belongs here.

--Sheila Ruth, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

A good picture book is a pleasing merger of text and artwork. A great picture book is a celebration of story and illustration, with lasting appeal for kids and/or adults. The best picture books completely excel in art, story, kid-friendliness, and adult appeal.

A Cybils-winning picture book adds that special "It Factor." In message, in world-view, in connection, in humor, in reach, a book with "It Factor" rises to a higher level. These are the picture books we bring home to show our seventh-grade daughter. These are the titles that we recommend repeatedly to everyone who will listen. These are the ones we buy even if we have no preschool children, and the ones we pull out to read again and again. And at the end of the Cybils judging, these are the books that we hope to share with you.

--Pam Coughlan, organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

The graphic novel is one of the most versatile categories of children's literature, combining pictures and words to form a seamless flow of story on almost any topic imaginable. Unlike standard 32-page picture books, targeted largely to the under-12 set, graphic novels can expand to fill hundreds of pages. They provide a unique twist on stories that fit our other categories, whether YA or early chapter book, nonfiction or fantasy.

The best graphic novels blend visual and literary storytelling synergistically, which is to say that each half embroiders on the story in ways the other cannot. The result is a fully-realized and complex tale-- something un-put-down-able and unforgettable. We're looking forward to reading your choices for the best graphics of 2009!

--Liz Jones, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

School Library Journal says that kids are paying more attention to nonfiction. Amen! 2009 has been a stellar year for the facts, and this is the spot to nominate informational books for older children and teenagers: biography, autobiography, science, history, sports, how-to, math, etc.

Past winners of the category are Freedom Walkers, by Russell Freedman (2006), Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood, by Ibtisam Barakat (2007), and The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir, by Cylin Busby and John Busby (2008).

--Susan Thomsen, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

While nominations are open in all categories, we're also featuring a few genres at a time over the first few days -- Eds.

Kids love interesting non-fiction books. Kids love information books. And the sky is the limit for kids' interests. The Non-fiction/Information Picture Book category is looking for stunning, visual nominees that capture the curiosity and wonder of children of all ages.

From science to art, history to sports, or current events to biographies, if the book has a fresh approach, kid appeal, fabulous illustrations, photography, and will be picked up again and again, please nominate

Non-fiction picture books will be 48 pages or less and aimed at younger readers. Non-fiction books 48 pages or more, with longer, denser text divided into chapters, belong in the Middle Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction category. The committee will refer to the Library of Congress classification as a guide for determining non-fiction status. Folktales, fairy tales, and poetry will be referred to appropriate committees.

Previous winners in this category include Nic Bishop’s Frogs (2008), Lightship by Brian Floca (2007), and An Egg is Quiet by Diana Ashton (2006).

--Jone MacCulloch, category organizer

Click here to go to the nomination form and leave your nomination for this category. (For more information about the form, go here.)

To view an up-to-the-minute list of what's already been nominated for this category, click here.

Welcome to the 2009 Cybils awards. All kids books published in English between Oct. 16, 2008 and the close of this year's nominations are eligible. Nominations close at 11:59 p.m. on October 15th. 

We're doing nominations this year with a simple, electronic form. See this post for an explanation.

But not the form.

You'll get that in a sec. First, some important advice:

1. Brush and floss daily.
2. Nominate only one book per genre
3. Pick a book you're passionate about
4. See rule #3 above.

I mean, geez, if you're kinda iffy on a book, why would you want to inflict it on us? We want to read books you think we shouldn't miss.

With that said ...

HERE'S THE NOMINATING FORM

Knock yourself out.

Read on for updates in each genre.

Here's the complete list of nominated books, updated continually:

Easy Readers/Short Chapter Books
Fantasy/SF
Fiction Picture Books
Graphic Novels
Middle Grade Fiction
Non-Fiction, MG/YA
Non-Fiction Picture Books
Poetry
Young Adult Fiction

The Preditors & Editors Poll is up, so if you have time head over there and vote for your favourite author / anthology / short story / magazine of 2008. And if your favourite story etc of the year isn't listed, you can add it. How cool is that.

I added Aaron Polson's 'Reciprocity' to the Sci-Fi/Fantasy nominations (apparently it will take an hour or so to appear on the nomination list) - if you loved the story as much as I did then go vote for him. Actually, go vote for him anyway because if he comes in last he might kill me. :)

I'm still convinced 2009 is going to be a scary year. January 1st hated me. My printer refused to print out 'Cyclone of Painted Shells' so that I could send it out to Fantasy & Science Fiction - I won in the end. :) Then when I went searching for an envelope for an SAE, one of the knobs on my storage drawers fell off and while I'm trying to reattach it (mumbling that 2009 hated me), the entire front of the drawer fell off. Then I was making a stupendous roast dinner and my Mum rushes in from the garden to say a helicopter looked as if it was out of control and it was above our house. When I got outside it was gone - but hey, I believe it was there.

Wrote my first short story of the year today - Golden Age of the Pumpkin Heads - and kind of got submission happy and sent it out already. I really do need to learn a little Stephen-King-patience.

Though the winners of the Cybils Awards will not be announced for a few months, the final nominations are in. If you are not familiar with this award here is a little information as written by editor of the Cybils blog, Anne Levy:

Tomorrow is the last day to nominate titles for the Cybils award. I am one of the lucky judges for the graphic novels committee, and I would love to have lots of titles to argue over...a-hem...discuss! Head on over to the Cybils to nominate!

Tomorrow is the last day to nominate titles for the Cybils award. I am one of the lucky judges for the graphic novels committee, and I would love to have lots of titles to argue over...a-hem...discuss! Head on over to the Cybils to nominate!