The window to nominate YOUR

Favorite Children’s and Young Adult

books for prestigious Cybils Awards is open

now through October 15^th!

 

What are Cybils Awards?

The first Cybils Awards were presented in February 2007. If you are really sharp, you probably just figured out that makes this year the 10^th anniversary for Cybils! 10 points to your favorite Hogwart’s house for being a genius!

Yay! Congrats, Cybils!

Cybils Awards are given by the KidLit blogging community each year to the best books in the following categories.

• Audiobooks
• Easy Readers and Early Chapter Books
• Elementary/Middle-Grade Speculative Fiction
• Fiction Picture Books/Board Books
• Graphic Novels
• Middle-Grade Fiction
• Middle-Grade/Young Adult Nonfiction
• Juvenile/Elementary Nonfiction
• Poetry
• Young Adult Fiction
• Young Adult Speculative Fiction

This year, we have FOUR Winged Pen members who have been selected as second round panelists. We are honored and very excited to be able to choose the best of the best this year! During the first round, panelists read the books that are nominated by the public. They pick a handful of books to nominate for the second round. During the second round, judges select a WINNER in each category.

We’d like to introduce ourselves, the category we are judging, and give you a hint about what we’re looking for in the Best Book of 2016.

Rebecca Allen: I’m excited to be reading Middle-Grade/Young Adult Non-fiction. Truth is stranger than fiction so give me all the stuff too crazy to put in a novel! I’d love to find some books that make great learning opportunities for kids both inside and outside the classroom, and some narrative non-fiction. For a list of MG/YA Non-fiction books published this year that would make awesome Cybil nominees, take a look at this post by Kelly on Stacked Books. Nominate away!

Sussu Leclerc: Two thumbs up for the Cybils Literary Award. This idea comes from people like me, by bloggers, by lovers of books. How wonderful! And you must share the books you’ve enjoyed for a chance to get them nominated. In my opinion, each book is a garden that deserves to be explored. I will be looking especialy for books that talk about Peace, art and Diversity. Non-fiction has been my first love in the path to writing. And who doesn’t use non-fiction books as a base for their stories? I’m proud to be part of the world of writers who not only write books, but also think sharing and communicating with their readers is important. I have been doing it for twenty years. I will be judging Middle Grade/Young Adult Non-fiction with Rebecca this year. I hope to help some fantastic books to shine to the world. Thank you to the Cybils’ team for choosing me! And thank you for trusting us.

Michelle Leonard: I’m excited to read the Juvenile/Elementary Non-fiction short list entries this year. My favorite books have engaging voice and inspire readers to either try or learn something new. Anything related to science, math, technology, or interesting/obscure events, places, or people appeals to me! Check out this list of suggested titles by Jennifer Wharton or Alyson Beecher.

Katharine Manning: I’m thrilled to serve as a second-round reader for Poetry, which includes novels in verse. I love word play, rhyme, and silliness, as well as heart-wrenching, literary, and evocative. Send it all! If you’re looking for inspiration in nominating, see here and here. Learn from my mistakes: The publication date of the paperback may not be the book’s actual publication date. Look for the hardcover edition. I can’t wait to read all those beautiful words!

Who can nominate books?

You!

Cybils books are nominated by the public. Then a group of panelists reads and nominates books for the final round. The nomination window for the public closes on October 15^th. Authors, publishers, and publicists have a separate window for nominations from October 16^th-25^th. You can nominate one book in each category. We know how hard it is to pick one book!

When are the awards announced?

On January 1^st, the short list is made public. On February 14^th, the winners are announced.

How do I nominate books?

It’s easy to nominate but first you must understand what type of books fit in each category. For descriptions of each category go here. Again, you can only pick ONE BOOK for each category. To be eligible, a book must be published in the U.S. or Canada between October 16, 2015 and October 15, 2016. Also, you can only nominate books that have not already been nominated. If your favorite book has already been chosen, you’ll get the opportunity to try another book. More info on the rules is here.

Once you have your list of dream reads ready, head on over to the Cybils nomination page to enter your picks. If you’re not ready to share your favorites yet but are curious to see what has already been nominated, just click on the categories above.

Click HERE to Nominate Your Favorite Books!

We hope you’ll take a few minutes to nominate your favorite books by the October 15th deadline!

Also, we’d love for you to share this post in your social media hangouts to spread the word. If you do, we’ll award 10 more points to your favorite Hogwart’s house!

Happy nominating!