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My mother, Alice Herold, served on the Non Fiction (Middle Grade/Young Adult) judging panel for the Cybils. She also reviews books for this site and The Edge of the Forest. Today, for Non Fiction Monday, I bring you her capsule reviews of four of the Cybils shortlisted titles. I'll post the other three next week.

Reviews by Alice Herold

The Periodic Table: Elements with Style
by Adrian Dingle, illustrated by Simon Basher

The Periodic Table: Elements with Style [Editorial interruption: That's one cool title!] is a completely original book about the 111 known elements. Dingle and Basher bring the elements to life, presenting them as cartoon characters and giving them a first-person voice. Radium looks like a newborn--a smiling baby boy encased in an oval shape, sound asleep. Helium is a pink balloon with a zen-like expression who says, "I am a noble gas with no color, taste, and smell. My main uses are in weather balloons and airships which need lighter than air properties." Dingle and Basher also include detailed information about each element--symbol, color, weight, density, standard state, classification, melting point, etc. The Periodic Table: Elements of Style also includes a helpful glossary and a colorful poster.


Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and Science of Ocean Motion
by Loree Griffin Burns

Did you know there is a floating garbage dump between Hawaii and California as big as Alaska? It lies in a convergence zone where currents come together and force the surface waters to sink. Did you know that 100,000 marine mammals in the Pacific Ocean die each year due to plastic ingestion? There is an underlying Save the Oceans theme in Tracking Trash, but Burns presents it in a way that leads the reader to think about the causes of pollution, rather than the effects. A glossary, a booklist, and a website resource list are included in the appendices. (I also learned that OSCURS--Ocean Surface Current Simulator--can tell you where and when lost cargo will wash ashore if you input a date and specific ocean location [longitude and latitude] where the cargo was lost.)

Smart-Opedia: The Amazing Book About Everything
by Eve Drobot, ed.

Smart-Opedia: The Amazing Book About Everything is my solution to increasing my Jeopardy! score. Ten writers and eighteen authors are behind this ambitious book that covers a range of information about, well, everything. The authors have included additional features as well for each topic, including "Career Opportunities," "Timelines," "Spotlight," "Kids' Questions," "Answers," and "Number Crunch" among others. One of my favorite features is "Tune-In" which offers a more in-depth look at a certain subject. This informational and fun-to-read "encyclopedia" makes a wonderful gift for a child eight years and older.

Who Was First?: Discovering the Americas
by Russell Freedman

Who Was First?: Discovering the Americas reads like a mystery. First Freedman debunks the assumption--Columbus discovered America in 1492--and then moves on to other, more compelling evidence: 1) Archaeologists in the 1970s discovered tools and the remains of ancient fire pits near Pittsburgh dating back 18, 000 years; 2) A 13, 500-year-old spearhead was found in 1933 next to a skeleton of a woolly mammoth in New Mexico; 3) Leif Erikson and crew established the first European settlement on North America around 1, 000 A.D. on the Northern tip of Newfoundland; and 4) There is a tower in Newport, Rhode Island that may date back to 1405-1433 when a mighty Chinese Armada set sail with 250 ships and perhaps 28, 000 crew members. Who Was First? is a fascinating and well-researched journey.

Up next week: Mom's reviews of Marie Curie, by Kathleen Krull, The Wall, by Peter Sis, and a longer review of the winning Non Fiction (MG/YA) title, Tasting the Sky, by Ibtisam Barakat.

The Cybils Awards will be announced this Thursday. Which books do you think will win? Have your say over at the Cybils blog. (I have to say that some of the results are surprising me.)

The final Cybils shortlists are now up! Many, many bloggers have been reading for weeks to choose their favorite kid-friendly titles in the following categories: Young Adult fiction; Non-Fiction Picture Books; Graphic Novels; MG/YA Nonfiction; Science Fiction/Fantasy; Fiction Picture Books; Poetry; and Middle Grade Fiction.

You can read all the lists here.

Congratulations to the winning authors and illustrators! Judging panels will now read the shortlists and we'll announce the category winners on Valentine's Day.

I'm back in Smalltown and it's 2008! The past few days have gone by in a blur of travel, reading, family, and viruses, but now I'm ready to get back to work and thankful for it. (Oh, and it's caucus time here in Smalltown. After hundreds of hours of research [I'm not kidding], I have finally decided on my first choice. I'm still uncertain as to who my second choice will be if my first choice is not viable. I have three more hours to decide.)

• Yay for the Cybils lists! Four of the nine lists are now up and they are great ones this year. Check out Fantasy/SciFi, Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, and Middle Grade Fiction. The rest of the lists will be up on January 7, so keep watching.
• I have to say I'm thrilled that the U.S. finally has an Ambassador for Children's Literature.
  
• The Class of 2k8 is here. And, don't miss their blog. This group of writers, whose first books for children will be published in 2008, includes a member of my writing group, P.J. Hoover! I'll be following them closely.

This is it, folks. Nominations for the 2007 Cybils will be closing at midnight tonight. Don't let your favorite book of 2007 go unnominated! Head on over and nominate now.

This week's Everyday Etiquette question goes beyond the individual: Who are we as adults to decide what is child-friendly?

This question has enormous implications for the Cybils (the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards). Why? Because 88 adults and 2 teens will be reading hundreds of books in the next four months in an attempt to find the best children's books that are also child-friendly.

So...who put the kid in kid-friendly? Head on over to the Cybils and tell us. Or, answer on your own blog and link back to the Cybils so we can hear what you have to say.

Nominations are now open for the 2007 Cybils! Head on over to the Cybils blog to nominate your favorite children's books of 2007.

Here's the press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOOK BLOGGERS KICK OFF KIDLIT AWARDS' SECOND YEAR

CHICAGO – Will Harry Potter triumph among critical bloggers? Will novels banned in some school districts find favor online?

With 90 volunteers poised to sift through hundreds of new books, the second annual Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards launches on Oct. 1 at http://www.cybils.com/. Known as the Cybils, it's the only literary contest that combines both the spontaneity of the Web with the thoughtful debate of a book club.

The public's invited to nominate books in eight categories, from picture books up to young adult fiction, so long as the book was first published in 2007 in English (bilingual books are okay too). Once nominations close on Nov. 21, the books go through two rounds of judging, first to select the finalists and then the winners, to be announced on Valentine's Day 2008.

Judges come from the burgeoning ranks of book bloggers in the cozy corner of the Internet called the kidlitosphere. They represent parents, homeschoolers, authors, illustrators, librarians and even teens.

The contest began last year after blogger Kelly Herold (hey, that's me!) expressed dismay that while some literary awards were too snooty – rewarding books kids would
seldom read – others were too populist and didn't acknowledge the breadth and depth of what's being published today.

"It didn't have to be brussel sprouts versus gummy bears," said Anne Boles Levy, who started Cybils with Herold. "There are books that fill both needs, to be fun and profound."

Last year's awards prompted more than 480 nominations, and this year's contest will likely dwarf that. As with last year's awards, visitors to the Cybils blog can leave their nominations as comments. There is no nomination form, only the blog, to keep in the spirit of the blogosphere that started it all.

See you Oct. 1!

For further info:
Anne Boles Levy
anne (at) bookbuds (dot) net