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The Cybils team has, of course, been thrilled at the Cybils-themed graphics that we received from Mo Willems and from the Rapunzel's Revenge team of Shannon and Dean Hale and Nathan Hale (see the images in the posts below). But we are equally thrilled by these other author and media responses to the Cybils:

The Cybils award was mentioned in a positive light in this School Library Journal article by Debra Lau Whelan about self-censorship (in the context of awards received by last year's YA winner, Boy Toy). Thanks to Gail Gauthier for the link.

Shortly before the winners were announced, I had a lovely email from Helen Frost, author of middle grade fiction shortlist title Diamond Willow. Helen said: "I am amazed and delighted that Diamond Willow is a Cybils finalist, and so impressed with the quality and depth of the conversation about my book and others. Thank you so much for honoring our books in this way."

As soon as the winners were announced, School Library Journal reported on the winners in an article by Rocco Staino. He said: "Nothing warms a librarian’s heart more than another book award list, and on Valentine’s Day kid lit bloggers announced the winners of the Cybils".

Middle Grade Fantasy winner Neil Gaiman wrote on his blog: "The Graveyard Book won a Cybil Award -- which is the children's book award from the blogging community. I was thrilled. All of the Cybil nominees and winners looked good this year, and I'm proud to be among them, and congratulations to everyone involved."

Cylin Busby, co-author with her father John Busby of The Year We Disappeared, wrote about winning the Cybils award for middle grade/YA nonfiction, saying: "Went to the "Kids Heart Authors" event at our local indie this morning (Skylight Books in Los Feliz). And when we got home, there were tons of emails in my inbox saying "Congrats!" and whatnot. So I thought, "wow, folks are getting pretty excited about this CBS show tonight, but it's not like we won an award or something...." oops. We DID win an award. A Cybils Award!"

E. Lockhart wrote: "I am so so pleased that The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks won a Cybils Award for best young adult novel!"

And we had lovely mentions from Paul at Omnivoracious ("These blogger literary awards definitely succeed in identifying the organic chicken nuggets of the kid-lit world"), sassmonkey from BlogHer "The Cybils are one of the most fun book awards out there ... It's a grassroots as an award can be and it's utterly fantastic.", and Carol Rasco's RIF blog ("Check out this year’s winners as well as the process for Cybils and be prepared to nominate your favorites in October 2009!").

The Cybils winners were also covered by too many children's and young adult book blogs to mention. Thank you all for helping to spread and share our joy in this year's winners! -- Jen Robinson, Literacy Evangelist

Remember back in May when I raved about a certain graphic novel by the name of Rapunzel's Revenge? Penned by my-favorite-author Shannon Hale along with her husband Dean, and astoundingly illustrated by Nathan Hale? Well, just as I predicted, the book is becoming a smash hit: in September, Shannon and Dean will be interviewed on the Today Show(!), as part of Al's Book Club for Kids! The book has just been released, so now all of you can get your hands on a copy, too.

As you can imagine, I was completely thrilled when the threesome agreed to let me interview them. Enjoy~

Shannon and Dean, how was Rapunzel's Revenge born? What was the initial inspiration for it? Did you know right away that you wanted it to be a graphic novel? If not, how did that idea evolve?

SHANNON: Dean and I wanted to collaborate. I said "fairy tale." He said, "superhero comic book." And one kick-butt fairy tale super heroine was born.

DEAN: I'd been waiting several years for a properly manly coat-tail riding opportunity, and this was my best shot.

Nathan, when did you first hear about this project? What was your reaction?

NATHAN: I was in a Utah writers group, Shannon was asking for book donations from authors. They were for some kind of charity Christmas tree. I mailed her a copy of my picture book, THE DEVIL YOU KNOW. She emailed to ask if I’d done graphic novel work before, I told her I hadn’t, but had always wanted to. Around that time her publisher (Bloomsbury) actually bought my publisher (Walker) so we technically had the same publisher. She told me that she and Dean had written a graphic novel version of Rapunzel as a western. I begged her to let me submit illustrations with the manuscript. We spent a month or two putting the bundle together (at this point, I think I’d only met Shannon once or twice in person.) I did a bunch of character drawings, and a map (the same map ended up in the book.) The gang at Bloomsbury liked the artwork and signed the three of us up.

The making of a graphic novel. What was the process like? Please share your point of view of the collaboration and working together.

SHANNON: Dean and I wrote all the dialog and captions as well as a description of what was going on in each panel. It's sort of like writing a screenplay. We certainly didn't sketch rough scenes--not if we ever wanted Nate to respect us. It was always fun to see what Nate did with our script, how he could perfectly capture the humor we were going for, and how he'd take our descriptions and add to them.

DEAN: What she said. The process and the format evolved a little as we worked all worked together - it got a little more free form, I think, as Shannon and I constantly rewrote each others' scenes and we saw the kinds of things Nate would suggest (or ignore).

NATHAN: When I came on board, Shannon and Dean were finishing the final draft. So the story arc and dialogue were all pinned down. I didn’t start work until the final draft had been fully edited and finalized by Bloomsbury.

I did a pencil sketch version of the book. The original sketch version was about 160 pages—20 pages too long. So we had to go back and trim down a few action sequences. The revised pencil sketches went back to the publisher and everyone made notes, the editor, Shannon and Dean. Then I made changes based on the notes. After the pencils had been okayed, I moved on to inking and coloring. My wife, Mindy had a background in desktop publishing, so she took over the lettering and balloons.

The last step was doing the cover. We went back and forth on Rapunzel’s expression, should she be smiling or angry? Mouth open or closed? I must have painted six different mouths for her. But I think we ended up with the right one.


What was the hardest part of the process for you? What did you learn/take from this?

SHANNON: The hardest part for me was making sure we were using this medium to its best advantage and not just writing a short novel. And keeping the text tight. You have to say so much with so few words, and we crammed as much story and action in there as possible!

DEAN: Actually getting off my butt and doing my part. Shannon has such an incredible work ethic - she would spend all day watching the kids and still be gung-ho. I come back from sitting at a desk for 8 hours and all I want to do is lay in bed and twitch.

NATHAN: Ugh. The COLORING. Doing the pencil sketches was tough, but exciting, it was like storyboarding a movie. It took a lot of thinking and problem solving. Inking was fun. That was just drawing, fleshing out the pencil sketches. But the coloring was murder. The color is digital. Photoshop layers on top of the drawing. And it was slow, and so, so boring. I have a tablet monitor, where you draw directly on the computer screen. When it’s been on a while, it gets really warm. I’d get cozy and fall asleep.

There's a sequel, in the works! Hooray! Anything you can share about that? What part of the process is that in right now?

SHANNON: It's called Calamity Jack. Nate named it, and the title rocks. The main character is Jack, though Rapunzel is a big part of it. We get a little of Jack's backstory and then the story takes off from there after the events in Rapunzel's Revenge. This one is an urban tale and just as kick-butt as the original, if not more so. Nate's illustrating it now and cursing our names under his breath every day. What's that, Nate? Your entire life has become these graphic novels? You must have been insane to agree to do it in a year? Too late now, baby, you've signed your soul away. Ha-ha-ha!

DEAN: There are giant ants in it, which means it is clearly a work of genius. Nate's inking it now, and it looks great.

NATHAN: Yeah I’m about a quarter of the way through inking it now. Tonight I’m inking page 67. Which features a tiny house, a big hat, and a newspaper. I’m having a great time, it’s going to be a really fun book! (Just don’t talk to me when I’m coloring it.)

What do you think a graphic novel can offer a reader that no other format of book can?

SHANNON: I like to alternate a graphic novel with each novel I read, sort of to cleanse the palate. It's a different kind of reading and refreshing. For visual readers, the impact is HUGE! I always wanted to have a book I could give to those readers who are visual learners and need that hook to get into the story. I'm so thrilled now to have one. It's turned out as good and better than I'd hoped. Nate Hale is a god among illustrators.

DEAN: I think there's a kind of storytelling you can do in a graphic novel that you can't get anywhere else, at least not in my experience - something about the way you can play with time and imagination. I feel like you can get the in-your-face engagement of movies without abandoning the personal experience of a novel.

NATHAN: Pictures, lots and lots of little pictures.


Thank you SO much, guys and gal, for your time and super-fun answers!

It smells amazing. It feels amazing. It is ze most beautiful ARC I've ever received. It is.....



....Rapunzel's Revenge by SHANNON AND DEAN HALE!

Books Illustrated in Melbourne launched Elise Hurst’s 50th book in 11 years, The Night Garden, with a champagne party and an exhibit of illustrations from the book. A big crowd showed up! Before reading the book to a thrilled and energetically participating audience, Elise explained that two years ago she had only the germ of an idea–a garden “where everything happens, with each picture extraordinary.” A publisher was interested, but, big surprise, wanted a story. It’s an “escape artist” story, Elise discovered, of looking out on a magical garden in the middle of the night. She remembers falling asleep herself at the window as a child, dreamily gazing out the window into a possible magical garden she herself has now escaped into through her young character, Sally.

Elise’s husband, Peter, talked about the hard work of getting the text and the illustrations right. Discussing two particular pages, he explained that “in 40 words, with illustrations, Elise first got across the idea that Sally is adventurous and feels the magic, but her cat, Strange, is reluctant. Then Elise transitions into the mystical world outside, ‘to the edge of here and there.’ The garden is like an opera set, and the whole garden appears on the end papers.”

PaperTigers recognized Elise’s work some time ago with a gallery feature, and Elise remembered us when I introduced myself. I’m looking forward to writing about more about the vibrant community of illustrators, publishers, and writers that I’ve met through Ann Haddon and Ann James of Books Illustrated. Thanks for a great launch party!