we're talking cybils, and not shepherd et al

If you aren't a fan of the bookish posts on here, then I apologize now, because I've recently learned that I will have reason to write even more in the coming months since it's CYBILS time again! What? The CYBILS are not in your vocabulary? Well, I only became aware of them last year, but I quickly knew that I wanted to pay attention again this year. The CYBILS are best explained quoting from their About Us page, a witty and informative excerpt that it is:

Our purpose is two-fold:

• Reward the children’s and young adult authors (and illustrators – let’s not forget them) whose books combine the highest literary merit and “kid appeal.” What’s that mean? If some la-di-dah awards can be compared to brussel sprouts, and other, more populist ones to gummy bears, we’re thinking more like organic chicken nuggets. We’re yummy and nutritious.
• Foster a sense of community among bloggers who write about children’s and YA literature, highlight our best reviewers (and shamelessly promote their blogs) and provide a forum for the similarly obsessed.

We wouldn’t be a real contest if we didn’t have a whole bunch of complicated rules in tortured lawyerese. So maybe we’re not a real contest, because there aren’t any lawyers and only two rules:

1. You (and you can be anybody, even you) may nominate any book published in the contest year in English;
2. Only one book per category. We have ways of checking this, so play nice. Nominations open Oct. 1 and close Oct. 15.

After that, here’s what happens:

• We place all the authors names into a hat and pass our magic wand over it. After the rabbit pops out, we eat him and announce the winner, whom we have selected at random;
• Not really! Just testing you. We have panelists in each category who eat the rabbit. No, er, they read the books. They have until January 1 for that, which we hope and pray will be enough time. On Jan. 1 we’ll post the finalists;
• From Jan. 1 to mid-February, a second group of judges will read all the finalists and pick the winners, which we’ll announce on Valentine’s Day.

See? Easy. And no actual rabbits will be harmed in the process.

With the immersion in new children's literature and a healthy dose of humor and fun, you can see why I would be interested. Well, guess what? The lovely folks have decided that I am worthy enough to be a judge-- holy cow, huh? I am thrilled beyond belief to be a round two judge for the Fiction Picture Books Panel. Yes, the busy bees in round one will send us round two-ers a shortlist of amazing, beautiful, wonderful, terrific, fantastic new picture books and we shall sit in judgment. Yay!

So, are you asking yourself why you should even care about all this? Well, of course you have a role in this, too! From today until October 15, you can nominate your favorite new books in a wide variety of categories-- but you gotta pick one and only one in each category... a very, very tough decision for some of us bibliophiles. But you? You're up to the task, I just know it. So, go think on it, pick some of your favorite children's/middle grade/YA books that have been published between last October and now, and get to nominating, people!

SO looking forward to judging away in January,