Cybils Award Books

The Cybils Awards — the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards, always with the s — were started in 2006 by a small group of book bloggers and are still given each year by bloggers and reviewers rather than by a library association or a publishing body. Categories run from board books and picture books through middle grade and young adult fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, and poetry, and the titles considered come from public nominations opened each October.

Judging happens in two rounds. Round 1 panelists read the nominated books through the fall, with every title read by at least one panelist and preferably two, and post a shortlist of five to seven finalists per category at the end of December. A separate Round 2 panel then reads every finalist in its category and selects the winner, announced in mid-February.

The stated aim is books that combine the highest literary merit with popular appeal, and the two rounds are built to hold both — a founder placed the awards between the brussels sprouts of literary merit and the gummy bears of popularity contests. For a parent or teacher, that makes the shortlists particularly useful for a child who has been handed enough prize-winners and finished none of them.

Information from the Cybils Awards.