Cybils Time

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting much lately. The 2009 Cybils awards are in full swing, and Cybils duties have been keeping me pretty busy.

For those of you who don't know, the Cybils are the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards. A group of children's book bloggers, led by Anne Levy and Kelly Herold, created the award in 2006 to honor the best children's and young adult books of the year. Our goal is to recognize children's books that have both literary merit and "kid-appeal," and the award was founded on a firm belief that good children's books can have both.

This year I'm the organizer of the Fantasy/Science Fiction category, as I was in 2006 and 2007. (Many thanks to Tasha Saecker of the Kids Lit blog for taking charge of the category in 2008). I'm also doing a few other little jobs for the Cybils, and my favorite role of all: panelist in the Fantasy/Science Fiction category. I love being able to read through the nominated books and discuss them with the other panelists. I've developed some good online friendships with some of my co-panelists from earlier years. There's a special bond that comes from serving on something like this together. This year, I'm honored to serve with another great group of people. You can see the Fantasy/Science Fiction panelists here.

It's going to be really hard to decide. There are so many good books nominated this year. But for now, I'm just enjoying reading such a great bunch of books. You can find the full list of SFF nominations on the Cybils blog, and I'll also be posting them here shortly.