January seems to be the height of book award season, especially for books for children and teens. Earlier this week the American Library Assocation announced the Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, and several other youth media awards. The Cybils Award finalists were also announced earlier this month.
If you're unfamilar with the Cybils Awards, they reward the children’s and young adult authors (and illustrators) whose books combine the highest literary merit and "kid appeal" and to foster a sense of community among bloggers who write about children’s and YA literature. The criteria for nominations is quite simple: anyone may nominate any book published in the contest year in English (only one book per category) and the nominations are open October 1st through October 15th. Panelists read the nominated books through the end of December and on January 1st the finalists are posted. A second group of judges read all the finalists from early January through mid-February and pick the winners, which are announced on Valentine’s Day. The award is in it's fourth year, and the committee is comprised of over 100 bloggers who write about children’s and teen’s books every day.
There are ten catagories that will be awarded including Easy Readers & Short Chapter Books, Fantasy & Science Fiction for Middle Grade. Fantasy & Science Fiction for Young Adult, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Fiction, Non-Fiction for Middle Grade/YA, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, and Young Adult Fiction. A list of the finalists (which include ALA award winners Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin, and The Lion & The Mouse by Jerry Pinkney can be found here.
According to a tally on the award website, there were a total of 939 eligible books across all categories. Of those books, 931 were read by at least one panelist: and 894 books were read by at least 2 panelists. The 2008 winners included Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart.
The winners will be annouced on Feburary 14th.
Sound off: Who do you think will win?
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