Category: Cybil Awards

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Cybils Awards to Be Announced February 14

cybilsAre you excited about this Sunday, February 14? Can you hear the sound of drum rolls?

February 14 is a huge day because, in addition to being Valentine’s Day, the 2009 Cybils Award winners are going to be announced.

The Cybils are annual book awards given by children’s and young adult book bloggers. The Cybils have only two criteria: literary merit and kid appeal.

The judges are 100+ bloggers who write about children’s and teen’s books every day. As some of you already know, I have been acting as a Round II judge in the category of nonfiction picture book (Is there any other genre? 🙂 ).

Here is a list of the nonfiction picture book finalists that were announced on January 1st. Check the Cybils website for more information on each book. (If you are looking for books to share with your children, the other genre finalists are fantastic as well.)

Which of these finalists do you think will be the 2009 winner? Do you have a favorite?

2009 Non-fiction Picture Book Finalists:

Mermaid Queen: The Spectacular True Story Of Annette Kellerman, Who Swam Her Way To Fame, Fortune & Swimsuit History!

by Shana Corey

Scholastic


The Day-Glo Brothers

by Chris Barton
 and illustrated by Tony Persiani
Charlesbridge


Life-Size Zoo: From Tiny Rodents to Gigantic Elephants, An Actual Size Animal Encyclopedia

Created by Teruyuki Komiya with photographs by Toyofumi Fukuda

Seven Footer Press


14 Cows for America

by Carmen Agra Deedy

Peachtree


Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11

by Brian Floca

Atheneum



Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea

by Steve Jenkins

Houghton Mifflin


Faith (Global Fund for Children Books)

by Maya Ajmera, Magde Nakassis, and Cynthia Pon for the Global Fund for Children

Charlesbridge


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Cybils 2009 Finalists Revealed

Time to check if your favorite children’s and Young Adult books of 2009 made the cut at the Cybils Website.

For those of you that I have contacted about reading these books, here are the nonfiction picture book finalists. I can’t say anything about them right now, but these would be what I would be sharing. Check the Cybils website link above for more information on each book.

Non-fiction Picture Books

Or if you are looking for books to share with your children, the other genre finalists are some fantastic ones.

Fiction Picture Books

Middle-Grade/YA Non-Fiction

Note: I added Cars on Mars because Amazon won’t make a carousel widget with less than 6 books. Cars on Mars is a good book that didn’t make it as a Cybils finalist.

Finally, Amazon also created a list of Best of 2009 Picture books, although they combined both fiction and non-fiction. Some of the ones on this list couldn’t be nominated for Cybils because of requirements about the date of publication. In any case, it is fun to compare the choices. Only The Lion and the Mouse and The Curious Garden made both lists.

Please read my financial disclosure page for information about my affiliation with Amazon.

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Cybils Reveal Coming Soon

Can you feel the excitement? The Cybils book finalists are going to be made public this Friday, January 1, at 6:00 am Mountain time. See the the Cybils blog for more information about the reveal.

Now the pressure will be on the second group of judges to pick the winners.

Will your favorite books from 2009 be in the running?

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Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca is an extraordinary book. You can tell the minute you open it and see the front endpapers, which have exquisite, detailed illustrations of Apollo 11. There, laid out simply, is enough information about the flight to be a book in itself. You just have to stop and take it all in. But there’s more. moonshot1

The story itself begins with a well-grounded view of the moon from the earth. Simple, poetic words start you on your journey, a journey like no other. The first trip to the moon.

Following the astronauts as they get ready, you hear the clicks of their equipment as the pieces snap into place. Before long the earth is shaking, as the rocket takes off. The pace, the number of words and the energy all accelerate as the Eagle is about to land. Wow!

After reading all the rave reviews and seeing all the awards (Moonshot has been nominated for the Cybils award in the category of nonfiction picture book), I knew it was an obvious choice for my young nephew who is interested in the solar system and space right now. If you want to see more, take a peek at the trailers below.

For those that want to delve deeper into the flight after reading the book, such as why the astronauts have yellow feet when they are headed to board Apollo 11, take a look at author Brian Floca’s Moonshot Notes webpage. You will be amazed at the lengths he went to to achieve such accuracy and outstanding detail. This book is a superb example of an author fully understanding his topic and being able to finely distill the information to its essence. Magnifique.

Edit: For a fabulous review of the same book, with hands on activities visit Playing by the book.

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca

Reading level: Ages 4-8
Hardcover: 48 pages
Publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books (April 7, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 141695046X
ISBN-13: 978-1416950462
Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 10.6 x 0.6 inches

To explore more, there are some space-related activities to do with children at Growing With Science Blog this week.

To see for yourself what the fuss is about, take a look at the book trailers:

Trailer 1

Trailer 2

nonfictionmonday

Nonfiction Monday is a blogging celebration of nonfiction books for kids. For more information, stop by Picture Book of the Day. This week’s post is at Rasco From RIF.