This year, awards will be given in nine categories (Easy Readers, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, Middle Grade Novels, Non-Fiction Middle Grade/Young Adult Books, Non-Fiction Picture Books, Poetry, Young Adult Novels). Anyone can nominate books in these categories (one nomination per person per category). Nominated titles must be published between January 1st and October 15th of this year, and the books must be in English (or bilingual, where one of the languages is English). To nominate titles, visit the Cybils blogbetween October 1st and 15th. A separate post will be available for each category - simply nominate by commenting on those individual posts. If you are not sure which category to choose for a particular book, a questions thread will also be available.
The Cybils were founded by Anne Boles Levy and Kelly Herold. This year's winners will be announced on February 14th, 2009.
I also discovered a lovely photo of the Kane/Miller booth from the bloggers over at Bees Knees Reads who have just recently made it home after two weeks on the West Coast!
By the way, this week's newsletter was sent out late due to a technical error (me, forgetting to hit SEND).
Betsy Bird of SLJ's A Fuse #8 Production and Jen Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page, were kind enough to set aside time to join me last night for dinner during their visit to Anaheim for ALA. We ate, drank, and helped Betsy create footage for her blog video in Downtown Disney. Our food came about five minutes after placing our order. Perhaps it was less than five minutes. Either way, it was suspiciously fast, like magic.
I do have a few regrets about the evening. One was that I didn't bring them a copy of Singing to the Sun (sorry, ladies - you'll have to pick one up at the booth). I also regret not bringing along a camera, although I suspect that if I Say Please, Betsy will arrange for the photo of the three of us to reach me. Another regret was that I didn't order a Sangria. They looked beautiful and were pretty tasty, from what I heard. The discussion over dinner ranged from the Irish travelers that Betsy ran into to the six hour drive for Jen; the upcoming ALA events, the interesting culture that surrounds Disneyland and of course, blogging and blogging for outside sources.
We shared our individual experiences about the power of reading and being able to enjoy this magic with the young people in our lives. This, perhaps, was the highlight of my night as I talked about my son and could feel the same motherly-type pride that both Jen and Betsy expressed while sharing stories about the little ones that they enjoy reading with.
It's always a pleasure for me to hit the road and meet with people familiar with children's literature and to get feedback, from a marketing point of view. I head to the Stanford Professional Publishing Course in less than two weeks so I am preparing for more networking with others in the field. For now, and over the next three days, I will continue to share the magic that surrounds ALA.
If you have created, or would like to create Teacher Tips for any Kane/Miller title that you do not see listed, please send a copy to Jenna Ellis. If your Teacher Tips are selected to be included on our website, you will earn new books for your classroom!
