For the past two years, I've had the honor of being the category chair person for the Cybils Award for Middle Grade Fiction. The Cybils Awards are given in 10 categories and every nominated book is read by all the Round One panelists in each category. This year, Middle Grade Fiction had a total of 102 books nominated. That's a lot of reading to do between October 1st and the middle of December, but the dedicated Round One panelists read and read and finally came of with the seven books that they felt were met the combined Cybils standards of "highest literary merit and popular appeal."
First, I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate the authors of these seven finalists. They are
Barbara Dee - Maybe He Just Like You
Sarah Scheerger - Operation Frog Effect
Lindsey Stoddard - Right as Rain
Jamie Sumner - Roll with It
Lynne Kelly - Song for a Whale
Padma Venkatraman - The Bridge Home
Dan Gemeinhart - The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise
(I've included their Twitter handles so you can get to know these authors and their work better.)
Next, I'd like to thank the Cybils Round One panelists for all their hard work. They are
Shannon who blogs at Picture Books to YA
Brenda who reviews on Goodreads
Pamela who blogs at Young Adult Books - What We're Reading Now
Julie who blogs at Reading by the Pond
Stacy who blogs at It's All About the Journey
Genevieve Ford who talks books on Twitter
Rae Longest who blogs at Powerful Women Readers
(I've included their links so you can get to know these readers/reviewers better.)
Now, it's time for the Round Two judges to read and decide. The winner will be announced on February 14, 2020. And I can't wait to see what they decide.
FYI: If you are someone who likes to review children's literature from board books to young adult, perhaps becoming a Round One or Round Two judge is something you might like to do. If so, please feel free to visit and explore the Cybils website for more information. BTW, the call for judges goes out in mid-August (and that's a only mere 8 months away).
Have you read any of the Middle Grade Fiction finalists? What do you think about each one? I'd like to know.
I've read three of these (Maybe He Just Likes You, Operation Frog Effect and Song for a Whale) and I loved all three of them! I would be happy if any of them won!! (Now I need to read the others.)
ReplyDeleteNicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
I've heard lots of great things about most of these titles. Right as Rain is new to me. I have only read The Bridge Home, but I finally got a copy of Maybe He Just Likes You! It will have to wait til I finish my reading for round two MG speculative fiction, though :P
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