The CYBILS are the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards. Nominations are open to the public and judges are generally members of the kidlit blogging community. They have a friendly and playful mission statement on their website:

The Cybils Awards aim to recognize the children’s and young adult authors and illustrators whose books combine the highest literary merit and popular appeal. If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussels sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious.

This spring, I saw an announcement on the Kidlitosphere listserv inviting bloggers to contribute to the "List Fun" series on the Cybils blog, grouping Cybils-recognized titles by theme. I was happy to provide a list of ten Cybils Books of Jewish Interest, and was even happier to find that there were more then ten titles that had a Jewish connection.

Here are all the Cybils finalists and winners I could find that seemed to have a Jewish connection - please leave me a comment if I've missed any. And please follow this link for my annotated guest post on the Cybils Blog, my top ten Cybils Books of Jewish Interest! In that post, I also give credit where it's due if the titles won any additional awards besides the Cybils, as many of them have done.

JEWISH BOOKS ON THE CYBILS LIST

From my post on the Cybils Blog:

• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews (2012 Winner · Young Adult Fiction)
• Hidden: A Child's Story of the Holocaust by Loic Dauvillier, art by Marc Lizano and Greg Salsedo (2014 Finalist · Elementary/Middle-Grade Graphic Novels)
• Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch (2011 Finalist · Elementary/Middle-Grade Graphic Novels)
• Hereville: How Mirka Met a Meteorite (2013 Winner · Elementary/Middle-Grade Graphic Novels)
• Death by Toilet Paper by Donna Gephart (2014 Middle Grade Fiction finalist)
• The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos by Deborah Heiligman, illustrated by LeUyen Pham (2013 Finalist · Elementary/Middle Grade Non-Fiction)
• Courage & Defiance: Stories of Spies, Saboteurs, and Survivors in World War II Denmark by Deborah Hopkinson (2015 Finalist · Young Adult Nonfiction)
• Self-Portrait With Seven Fingers: The Life of Marc Chagall in Verse by J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen (2011 Finalist · Poetry)
• The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible . . . on Schindler's List by Leon Leyson (2013 Finalist · Young Adult Nonfiction, memoir)
• Under a Red Sky: Memoir of a Childhood in Communist Romania by Haya Leah Molnar (2010 Finalist · Non-Fiction - middle/teen [2006-2012])
• Paper Hearts by Meg Wiviott (2015 Finalist · Poetry)

Additional Cybils Titles of Jewish Interest:

• Faith by Maya Ajmera, Magde Nakassis, and Cynthia Pon (2009 Finalist · Non-Fiction Picture Book)
• An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank by Elaine Marie Alphin (2010 Finalist · Non-Fiction - middle/teen [2006-2012])
• Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain by Russell Freedman (2014 Finalist · Elementary Middle Grade Non-Fiction)
• Prisoner B-3087 by Alan Gratz (2013 Finalist · Middle Grade Fiction)
• Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto by Paul B. Janeczko (2011 Winner · Poetry)
• Freedom Summer Murders by Don Mitchell (2014 Finalist · Young Adult Non-Fiction)
• The Inquisitor's Apprentice by Chris Moriarty (2011 Finalist · Elementary/Middle-Grade Speculative Fiction)
• Feynman by Jim Ottaviani (2011 Finalist · Young Adult Graphic Novels)
• Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin (2015 Winner · Young Adult Non-Fiction)
• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (2012 Finalist · Young Adult Fiction)

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