Starting the New Year right! The Cybils Finalists are in Order

We start 2010 with some left-over business from 2009. After reading their way through over 900 books for children and young adults, in a variety of categories, the Cybils Round One Panelists have presented their lists of finalists for the consideration of the Round Two Judges. A full recap can be found at the Cybils blog, including some impressive statistics in terms of the hours and hours of work and attention put in by the panelists. And of course, some rather fine reading lists. This is a good opportunity to check and make sure there's not something awesome missing from your To Be Read pile.

As a member of the Non-Fiction Picture Book Panel, I would like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank my colleagues on the NFPB panel for a fabulous experience. Being involved with the Cybils isn't just about reading and blogging. There is bona fide committee work involved--often across time zones and despite technical glitches! I'm very proud of the list we presented. It was a real collaborative effort, hammered out through much discussion and defending, and represents as fine a collection of non-fiction writing for children as you will see all year. We were so impressed with the quality of the nominations we had to choose from. Really, if you could see the list of books we had to leave behind.......

Congratulations to all the finalists. Now it's time to sit back and wait for the winners to be announced. I don't envy the judges the task of selecting the best; coming up with seven nominees was difficult enough! But I know they'll do a great job, because if I've learned nothing else from my Cybils involvement, it's that there are a lot of committed individuals who care deeply about getting great books into the hands of young readers.