It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

While spring is my favorite season, most of my favorite events happen in fall. Talk Like a Pirate Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas (any time you can dress up AND eat lots of food is a happy time.) And...Cybils!

If you have never heard of the Cybils Awards, go here or here for an overview. Basically, it is an award (or several, actually) given to the best books every year for kids and young adults. And by "best", I mean well-written AND something kids will actually want to read! Take note, publishers: if a book is nominated, I will at least take a look at it. If it makes the short list for its category, I will definitely order it - and can pretty much guarantee it will never end up on my weed list for low circulation (can't say the same for many other award winners.)

One of the many neat things about he Cybils is that ANYBODY can nominate a book - you don't have to be published by one of the big names to get noticed! Heck, even your mother can nominate your book - or, you can just nominate it yourself! That doesn't mean you will win, but it does mean that judges (who are bloggers, librarians, and authors) will at least be giving it a look.

And who exactly are these judges? Well, this year, one of them is yours truly. Many years back, when Sheridan was a wee babe, I was on the first round panel for Young Adult Fiction. I had a BLAST, read some wonderful (and some not-so-wonderful) books, and met some really awesome people I am still in contact with today. Then Logan came along, then Shane, then Grace, and...well, things got a bit too busy to be reading 87 novels in two months.

Shane is two now, though, and he can make his own meals (as long as its just cereal and fruit). I am thrilled to be part of this year's Fiction Picture Books panel, and ready to start checking out titles - with my very own built-in min-panel at home. I'm also excited to get to know my fellow judges, and happy to see a friend and fellow librarian on the same panel (Hi Jennifer!) 

Here's where you come in - fill my schedule! Start thinking about books you would like to nominate, and go to Cybils.com between October 1 and 15 to enter them. Rules are pretty simple and can be found here. Then come back and let me know what you are nominating, so I can get a head start on my reading!