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“Twain is the day, Melville the night.” Roberto Bolaño on the influence of the “two main lines of the American novel”: he preferred Melville, but said he owed a greater debt to Twain. (Via; see also.)

“The task of art is to transform what is continuously happening to us, to transform all these things into symbols, into music, into something which can last in man’s memory… The work of a poet never ends. It has nothing to do with working hours.” — Jorge Luis Borges, speaking to Argentinian filmmaker German Kral.

In the same clip, Kral, standing outside Borges’ apartment in 1998, recalls visiting the writer there many years before. “Borges, who had so intensely loved books and for whom literature was alive, advised us not to read any book we didn’t enjoy,” he says. “Reading it by force did no good to the book, the author or ourselves.”

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Now that our shortlist has been officially announced on the Cybils blog, I can talk about it here, too. I'll be posting about the process in later posts, but for now, here are the books my fellow panelists (see my last post for who they are!) and I picked for the 2007 Cybils Nonfiction Picture Book shortlist
(in no particular order):

1) Lightship

AUTHOR &
ILLUSTRATOR: Brian Floca
Richard Jackson Books/Atheneum

The fog seems to waft off the page in this delightful look at the work and life aboard the lightship Ambrose -- a floating lighthouse anchored offshore. The writing is rich and engaging without talking down, and humour permeates both text and illustration. Floca's detailed watercolour illustrations and deceptively simple text sprinkled with sensory language have readers practically feeling the dampness, tasting the sea air, and tilting with the deck.


2) Vulture View

AUTHOR: April Pulley Sayre
ILLUSTRATOR: Steve Jenkins
Henry Holt

Simple conversational rhyme and Jenkins' signature cut paper illustrations provide a lovely early introduction to vultures -- fascinating creatures that don't usually get their own book. The bold palette and interesting, sometimes eerie perspective are a perfect complement to Sayre's kid-friendly text, the rhythm of which cleverly reflects the birds' daily rhythm. Precise meter and rhyme, and the inclusion of some repetition make this a great interactive readaloud.


3) Let's Go! The Story of Getting from There to Here

AUTHOR: Lizann Flatt
ILLUSTRATOR: Scot Ritchie
Maple Tree Press

Distilling thousands of years of tranportation history into a picture book for a young audience is a tall order, but Flatt and Ritchie pull it off brilliantly. Fresh word choices -- those unexpected verbs are a treat! -- and rhyme so subtle, as though folded into the shadows, contribute to Flatt's lovely lyrical style. The fun, kid-friendly illustrations are abuzz with activity, and the text wends across each page to echo the transportation theme.


4) Where in the Wild? Camouflaged Creatures Concealed...and Revealed

AUTHORS:
David M. Schwartz
& Yael Schy
PHOTOS: Dwight Kuhn
Tricycle Press

A refreshing selection of ten camouflaged animals beautifully photographed are presented as a "find-the-critter" challenge. Snappy titles and delicious poems cleverly hint at the animals' identities (form and meter match each animal! Yowsa!) , and fold-out pages reveal the animals and cool information about them. Clearly written in a kid-friendly conversational style.


5) Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg

AUTHOR &
ILLUSTRATOR: Mia Posada
Millbrook Press

Posada's charming cut paper and painted illustrations zero in on the eggs of six different animals, her interesting angles and close-up views providing hints at which animals laid them. Rhyming couplets add more clues as readers are encouraged to "Guess what is growing inside this egg." Answers and more information about the animal appear on the following page. Backmatter includes a spread with all of the eggs drawn to scale, and another showing what happens inside a developing duck egg. A great egg readaloud.


6) One Thousand Tracings - Healing the Wounds of World War II

AUTHOR &
ILLUSTRATOR: Lita Judge
Hyperion

First person point of view (Judge's mother as a child) makes it easy for young readers to connect with this beautifully written and illustrated story of kindness and hope from a difficult time in history. After discovering hundreds of foot tracings and letters in her grandmother's attic, Judge learned of her mother's and grandmother's efforts to supply much needed shoes, clothing, food, and other supplies to Europeans left homeless and starving after WWII. An amazing story, told well. Good as a readaloud, but with brief text and easy language, it is also accessible to young independent readers.


7) Living Color

AUTHOR &
ILLUSTRATOR: Steve Jenkins
Houghton Mifflin

A rainbow of familiar and exotic animals in gorgeous cut and painted paper pops from the page in this fresh approach to looking at animal coloration. Each animal, sorted according to colour, is accompanied by a short paragraph of supporting information subtitled with plenty of humour. Jenkins isn't afraid to have animals straddle spreads when colours overlap (cool!). Excellent for non-linear readers who prefer to browse and read smorgasbord-style -- a feast.

Congratulations to all of the authors, illustrators, editors, art directors etc., who created these gems. Now it's up to the judging panel to choose a winner from among them. It ain't gonna be easy, I tell ya.

And if you'd like to hear fellow panelist Tricia and I talk a bit about the process, head on over to Just One More Book!! where Andrea and Mark have posted a podcast interview. Anyone want to give me a nickel for every time I said "Uh..."? I figure that should finance at least one mocha cappucino at the local coffee bistro. With extra foam. And chocolate shavings. And sprinkles.

Links to all of the shortlists:

• Nonfiction Picture Books
• Fiction Picture Books
• MG/YA Nonfiction
• Middle Grade Novels
• Young Adult Novels
• Poetry
• Fantasy/Science Fiction
• Graphic Novels

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