My Cybils Nominees 2014

It's Cybils Nomination Time! The Cybils are my favorite book awards for kids, because so far they have a very solid record of listing books that both I and the kids I like enjoy. For the next few days, they are accepting nominations from regular people like me. And like you, mythical person who probably doesn't read my blog.

So, if you've read any great books that kids would love in the past year, get over there and nominate before Oct 15th rolls around and the polls close!

For the past few years, I've challenged myself to read the entire Cybils shortlist, with the exception of BookApps because I have no idea how to get those. I've really enjoyed this reading journey (odyssey?) and have hauled along my children and any other children I can get my hands on as far as they would go. Obviously the younger ones don't get the YA lists, and the older ones sometimes aren't all that interested in Early Chapter Books.  Cybils picks have provided me with excellent options for my book clubs (and now I'm the Laser of Sword & Laser Kids, so I need a lot more science fiction kidlit, STAT).

A sad side effect of my Cybils challenge obsession hobby is that I miss out a lot on new books because I'm spending so much time reading last year's picks. I only read 1-3 kidlit books a week, and I'm also doing book clubs at the elementary school, online, my family book club, and keeping up with all the series and authors I love (which the Cybils have added a lot to!) so the 77 books from last years list have kept me fairly busy. Yes, my excuses are fascinating, aren't they? So I don't have much to nominate this year. I meant to keep a list, but then I always mean to do a lot of things.

I did enjoy looking through the new picture books at my library, at least until they tore it down (don't panic, they will build it up again. It just needs walls at this point). So I had a favorite picture book:


 Paul Meets Bernadette -- fiction picture book. Two odd fish. This book by Rosy Lamb had quirky characters with pictures that perfectly matched the tone, and it just made me smile and wish my sons were small again so we could read it together.

And then on Saturday I finished Unmade by Sarah Rees Brennan. Loved it, nominated it, although as a third book in a series I don't think it has much chance.

I really liked the most recent Nathan Hale history book (found him through the Cybils) but someone else already nominated it. I was going to put it in YA for extreme grimness and slaughter, but apparently it got nominated in the younger category. Maybe I should offer it to my 8th grader...

I got some graphic novel suggestions at GeekGirlCon, so I will look them up at the library tomorrow and maybe sneak some in before nominations close.  Jinx's Magic by Sage Blackwood was one of my favorites this year, but someone else loved it faster.  Also, it's a sequel to a 2013 nomination.