Spotlight on the 2015 Cybils Award for Middle Grade Fiction

The 2015 Cybils awards were announced on February 14, 2016 (Valentine's Day so appropriate for book lovers) and I was honored to be a Second Round Judge in the category of Middle Grade Fiction for the third year.  First, let me thank the First Round Judges for all the hard work they had to do to come up with the five finalists.  I know it wasn't an easy task.

Next, I want to thank Karen Yingling (Ms.Yingling Reads) for being our fearless leader and organizing the Middle Grade Fiction readers once again.  And of course, a big thanks to my fellow judges for their insightful thoughts and the wonderful conversation/discussion we had while choosing the 2015 Middle Grade Cybils award: Greg Partridge (Always in the Middle), Gail Gauthier (Original Content, Jennifer Rosenberg, Youth Services Librarian, and Stacey Loscalzo (StaceyLoscalzo).  It was a pleasure being a part of this team.

The winner of the 2015 Cybils Award for Middle Grade Fiction is The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands (my review is forthcoming):

Congratulations to the other 2015 Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Finalists:

Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bergman
Blackbird Fly by Erin Entrada Kelly
Footer Davis is Probably Crazy by Susan Vaught
Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai

I really enjoyed reading all the these finalist and will be posting reviews on them soon.