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The Cybils team has, of course, been thrilled at the Cybils-themed graphics that we received from Mo Willems and from the Rapunzel's Revenge team of Shannon and Dean Hale and Nathan Hale (see the images in the posts below). But we are equally thrilled by these other author and media responses to the Cybils:

The Cybils award was mentioned in a positive light in this School Library Journal article by Debra Lau Whelan about self-censorship (in the context of awards received by last year's YA winner, Boy Toy). Thanks to Gail Gauthier for the link.

Shortly before the winners were announced, I had a lovely email from Helen Frost, author of middle grade fiction shortlist title Diamond Willow. Helen said: "I am amazed and delighted that Diamond Willow is a Cybils finalist, and so impressed with the quality and depth of the conversation about my book and others. Thank you so much for honoring our books in this way."

As soon as the winners were announced, School Library Journal reported on the winners in an article by Rocco Staino. He said: "Nothing warms a librarian’s heart more than another book award list, and on Valentine’s Day kid lit bloggers announced the winners of the Cybils".

Middle Grade Fantasy winner Neil Gaiman wrote on his blog: "The Graveyard Book won a Cybil Award -- which is the children's book award from the blogging community. I was thrilled. All of the Cybil nominees and winners looked good this year, and I'm proud to be among them, and congratulations to everyone involved."

Cylin Busby, co-author with her father John Busby of The Year We Disappeared, wrote about winning the Cybils award for middle grade/YA nonfiction, saying: "Went to the "Kids Heart Authors" event at our local indie this morning (Skylight Books in Los Feliz). And when we got home, there were tons of emails in my inbox saying "Congrats!" and whatnot. So I thought, "wow, folks are getting pretty excited about this CBS show tonight, but it's not like we won an award or something...." oops. We DID win an award. A Cybils Award!"

E. Lockhart wrote: "I am so so pleased that The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks won a Cybils Award for best young adult novel!"

And we had lovely mentions from Paul at Omnivoracious ("These blogger literary awards definitely succeed in identifying the organic chicken nuggets of the kid-lit world"), sassmonkey from BlogHer "The Cybils are one of the most fun book awards out there ... It's a grassroots as an award can be and it's utterly fantastic.", and Carol Rasco's RIF blog ("Check out this year’s winners as well as the process for Cybils and be prepared to nominate your favorites in October 2009!").

The Cybils winners were also covered by too many children's and young adult book blogs to mention. Thank you all for helping to spread and share our joy in this year's winners! -- Jen Robinson, Literacy Evangelist

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Did y'all check out the Cybils winners that were announced this weekend?

I was on the MG/YA nonfiction panel, so I thought I'd discuss the winner for nonfiction Monday!

The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir Cylin Busby and John Busby

John Busby was a police officer on Cape Cod who was about to testify against the brother of Raymond Meyer, a known arsonist and suspected murderer. On his way to work one night, he was shot in the face. If he survived, John knew that Meyer would come after his family next. He also knew that Meyer would only know where John was going to be if someone on the force had leaked that information.

Cylin was 9 when someone tried to kill her father. All of a sudden, there were policemen guarding her house, following her to school, standing outside her classroom door... she wasn't allowed to go over to anyone's house, no one was allowed to come over to hers.

John was frustrated and angry at the lack of progress being made in the investigation. He couldn't talk and had to take his meals through an injection in his stomach, and later through a tube.

Cylin knew she was supposed to pretend that everything was fine, and that life was going on as normal, but it wasn't.

The Busbys tell their story in alternating chapters, giving us both sides of their story--Cylin's chapters keep their child-eye's view, and John's give us the information on the investigation and his medical progress. The book is gripping and a page-turner, with something to appeal to everyone. Some readers will respond to Cylin's feelings of confusion and fear, some will appreciate the police procedural and medical information. Overall, a strong book and a strong winner.

One of my other favorites on the short list was...

Body Drama: Real Girls, Real Bodies, Real Issues, Real Answers Nancy Redd

Usually, when it comes to body stuff for girls, books fall into 2 categories--books about puberty and books about sex. Redd's doesn't--this is a book that is about your body and not sex, but it's for the post-pubescent woman. It covers a range of topics--everything from corns and warts to facials, body piercings and zits, lice and facials, stretch marks and skid marks. The overall image is that yes, I know you feel like a freak because your body does this, but guess what! most bodies do and everyone's feeling like theirs is the only one!

Best of are Redd's confessions throughout the book--about all the embarrassing things she's talking about and how yes, they have happened to her.

And, there are pictures. No weird drawings of things, actual photos. Yes, this means there are photos of all sorts of body parts and bodies, in all shapes and sizes and colors. Some people may find it gross or titillating, but I think it is very empowering. My favorite are the pages showing what airbrushing can do to pictures, and how it's often used. The normal shots versus the airbrushed ones are illuminating and eye-opening.

It's funny, it's informative, and in a very teen-friendly design. This is a book I wish was around when I was a teen and needs to be on every teen girl's bookshelf.

Round up is over at Jean Little Library!

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The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir

Authors: Cylin and John Busby
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (August 2008)
Reading Level: YA/ 352 pages

Imagine as a nine-year old, going through everyday with a police officer following you (everywhere!), living inside a fortified house, and a dog trained to kill living in your yard. This is the true story of the Busby family. This was one Cybils Finalist I was really looking forward to reading. When I tracked it down at another library, I powered through it in two days! I couldn't put it down. I had never heard of this story, but found myself so intrigued by the strength and resilience of this family that was forced to endure so much.

When Cylin Busby was nine years old, she was obsessed with Izod clothing, the Muppets, and her pet box turtle. Then, in the space of a night, everything changed. Her police officer father, John, was driving to work when someone leveled a shotgun at his window. The blasts that followed left John’s jaw on the passenger seat of his car—literally. Busby is taken to Massachusetts General, where he spends the next few months unable to talk or to eat. Overnight, the Busbys went from being the "family next door" to one under 24-hour armed guard, with police escorts to school, and no contact with friends.

Worse, the shooter was still on the loose, and it seemed only a matter of time before he’d come after John—or someone else in the family—again. The shooter has close ties to the police department and the investigation turns out to be very careless.No one is arrested, and the family spends the next year pretty much under house arrest with round-the-clock police guards, a sniper on their roof, and a police dog chained up in their backyard. With their lives unraveling around them, and few choices remaining for a future that could ever be secure, the Busby family left everything and everyone they had ever known…and simply disappeared.

The format of the book makes it a fascinating read. The chapters alternate between John's recollections and those of his daughter, Cylin, who was nine years old at the time of the events. This way, the reader sees the events through the eyes of an adult and through the eyes of a nine-year old. We often never hear how a child is affected by such a tragedy, so to hear Cylin's perspective is truly unique.

Some young readers might not be able to take the graphic detail in this book, but those interested in crime stories will find that it lingers with you and gives you a new appreciation for police families.

Be sure to tune in February 14th at 10 p.m. to watch the Busby family story on CBS's Live to Tell series from the producers of 48 Hours. I know I'll be watching!
For more info, visit CBS News.

Read another great review...
Carol Wilcox at Carol's Corner

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Not a whole lot of news on this front, just some reviews:

kimmie66 Aaron Alexovitch

In this latest Minx offering, Telly is a 23^rd century girl who (like most people) spends all of her time in the lairs—themed virtual reality environments. When she receives a suicide note from her best friend, Telly is devastated, but confused. Telly wouldn’t put it past Kimmie to fake the whole thing as a prank, plus there is the little problem of the fact that Telly has no idea what Kimmie’s real name is or where she lives or anything about her life outside the liars.

Exploring a life lived entirely on the virtual realm, Alexovitch explores the thin line between reality and virtual reality and asks what is real and what isn’t. Although the ending contains a slight message to “stop and smell the un-virtualized roses,” this is one of the strongest titles of the Minx line.

First Kiss (Then Tell): A Collection of True Lip-Locked Moments ed. Cylin Busby

This is a cute collection of short vignettes about first kisses. The range and caliber of young adult authors included is impressive (Jon Scieszka, Shannon (and Dean!) Hale, Nikki Grimes, Naomi Shihab Nye and Scott Westerfield--just to name a few.) The stories range from hilarious to heart-breaking, heart-stopping to disgusting. The anthology contains quotations from movie stars as well as kissing trivia interspersed with the stories, poems and comics.

Overall, it’s a very enjoyable, sweet read that puts the pain, romance, and laughter back into kissing, without the pressure of going further. A sure-hit for the chick-lit crowd.

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Things -- particularly things to do with movies -- happen oddly, when they happen, and they never happen in the way you expect.

For example, back in 1996 Michael Reaves was working doing adventure cartoon serials at Dreamworks Animation. He started talking to me about an idea for something that could be a potential animated story, and we began talking about what we'd want to see animated and why, and that became an idea about a boy who finds himself in the middle of a war between two equally powerful forces, who joins a super-team consisting of versions of himself from different alternate realities to try and maintain the consmic balance.

We pitched it to executives, first at Dreamworks and then elsewhere, and watched them get increasingly confused and grumpy.

Somewhere in the winter of 1998 or 1999, Michael came up to my place, and we wrote it as a novel, pretty much as a Heinlein juvenile, because the treatments we did simply confused people and we were sure that if they read the novel they'd understand.

And then we discovered the novel seemed to confuse them too, and we sighed and we put it away and got on with our lives.

Last year, Michael reminded me of the book, and we took it out, dusted it off, sent it out to publishers and were happy when Harper Childrens wanted to publish it. They commissioned a lovely cover for it by James Jean.



The early reviews were very positive. Film and TV people started contacting my agent about it. And now, a decade later, I'm delighted and slightly bemused to report that it's just been optioned by Dreamworks Animation, who want to make it into a movie...

There's a moral there somewhere, you know, but I have no idea what it is.

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