I have some news of a moderately exciting nature.
I am going to be a judge (in round two) on the 2010 Teen/YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Panel (of the 2010 Cybils Awards.
This is my first year as a judge and I will be in the company of many other excellent bloggers in both round one and round two. Needless to say, I am pleased as punch about the whole thing.
For anyone who is happy but also slightly confused, the Cybils are a series of literary awards given out in different categories for children’s and young adults books. It is the only award given out by bloggers (like me!). If you want even more information, they have a very comprehensive FAQ page.
Here’s the cool thing: Anyone can nominate a book.
Starting October 1st (ending the fifteenth) you can nominated one book in each genre published between Oct. 16, 2009 and Oct. 15, 2010. After the nominations close my colleagues in the first round of judging will go through the books and select five to seven finalists. Starting January 1 the second round judges (like me!) will read all of the books on that list and select a winner by February 12th.
Then everyone gets to throw confetti and readers get to pick up all the finalists and winning books they haven’t read yet. (The confetti part I made up, it’s not mentioned in the official Judging Info page.) This is all new territory for me which is a little scary but also really, really exciting too.
I’ve added a handy sidebar link to the Cybils main page for any interested readers.
Oh, and have I mentioned I’m excited?
UPDATE: Here’s a list of the massive (and awesome) Scifi/Fantasy panel (it–or can I now say we?–has a section for Middle Grade/Elementary Fantasy and a YA/Teen section as well. Anyway here’s the full list of judges and remember to get nominating come October first!
Panelists (Round I Judges), MG/Elementary:
Anamaria Anderson, Books Together
Gwenda Bond, Shaken & Stirred
Cindy Hannikman, Fantasy Book Critic
Aaron Maurer, Coffee for the Brain
Nicole Signoretta, Booked Up
Charlotte Taylor, Charlotte’s Library
Karen Yingling, Ms. Yingling Reads
Panelists (Round I Judges), Teen/YA:
Steve Berman, Guys Lit Wire
Tanita Davis, Finding Wonderland
Leila Roy, Bookshelves of Doom
Sheila Ruth (see panel organizer)
Angie Thompson, Angieville
Hallie Tibbetts, Undusty New Books
Heather Zundel, Secret Adventures of WriterGirl
Round II Judges:
Elementary/Middle
Melissa Baldwin, One Librarian’s Book Reviews
Kate Coombs, Book Aunt
Emily Mitchell, emilyreads
Nancy Tsai, Kidsmomo
Tanya Zavestoski Turek, Books 4 Your Kids
Teen/YA
Emma Carbone, Miss Print
Anne Levy, Cybils
Sam Musher, Parenthetical
Sarah Stevenson, Finding Wonderland
Steph Su, Steph Su Reads
Miss Print 