Announcement #1
I’ve been a bad person. There have been two big, two very important announcements that I have been sitting on like a duck with her brood. I can’t blame my upcoming trip to the Kidlitosphere Conference since, uh, almost every other blogger out there is doing the same durned thing. I can’t blame being busy . . . but I might consider it. Nah. I’m just a schmuck. And thus, with my schmuckety schmuckerificness, I give you some very un-schmucklike news items that you simply must know about.
If you listen to my podcasts then you’ll already know about this. However, the time for nominating books for the Cybil Awards is nigh. Observe the following press release notice from Editor and Co-Founder Anne Boles Levy of Book Buds:Will Harry Potter triumph among critical bloggers? Will novels banned in some school districts find favor online?
With 90 volunteers poised to sift through hundreds of new books, the second annual Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards launches on Oct. 1 at www.cybils.com. Known as the Cybils, it’s the only literary contest that combines both the spontaneity of the Web with the thoughtful debate of a book club.
The public’s invited to nominate books in eight categories, from picture books up to young adult fiction, so long as the book was first published in 2007 in English (bilingual books are okay too). Once nominations close on Nov. 21, the books go through two rounds of judging, first to select the finalists and then the winners, to be announced on Valentine’s Day 2008.
Judges come from the burgeoning ranks of book bloggers in the cozy corner of the Internet called the kidlitosphere. They represent parents, homeschoolers, authors, illustrators, librarians and teens.
The contest began last year after blogger Kelly Herold expressed dismay that while some literary awards were too snooty – rewarding books kids would seldom read – others were too populist and didn’t acknowledge the breadth and depth of what’s being published today.
“It didn’t have to be brussel sprouts versus gummy bears,” said Anne Boles Levy, who started Cybils with Herold. “There are books that fill both needs, to be fun and profound.”
Last year’s awards prompted more than 480 nominations, and this year’s contest will likely dwarf that. As with last year’s awards, visitors to the Cybils blog can leave their nominations as comments. There is no nomination form, only the blog, to keep in the spirit of the blogosphere that started it all.
See you Oct. 1!
For further info:
Anne Boles Levy
anne (at) bookbuds (dot) net
Thank you, Anne. For all that you do.
Filed under: Uncategorized
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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