seven books for January

I've been awaiting the arrival of January 1st for a while now, and it has nothing to do with resolutions, (not my thing, except like this and this), or because of rockin' New Year's Eve party plans. Nope, 01/01/10 has been circled in big red pen in my mind because of one thing:

The finalists have been announced, and I'm friggin thrilled to say that I get to be one of the honorable judges in the Fiction Picture Book category (well, perhaps the others are worthy of the honor... I'm still not sure how I got in!). Back in October, the Panelists (aka Round One Judges) began working their tails off reading the over 900 books that had been nominated. OVER 900! Insane. They then compiled the shortlists- seven titles in each category that have the amazingly good fortune to be called a Cybils Finalist. And now the torch gets handed over to us Round Two-ers, who will discuss/analyze/vote for the ultimate champions.

I'd like to give a shout-out to the wonderful, beautiful, amazing, hard-working folks who delivered the short list for the Fiction Picture Books as Round One Judges:

• Pam, MotherReader- panel organizer and fellow Mo Willems cult follower
• Shelly, Write for a Reader- organized book blogger extraordinaire
• Katie, Katie's Literature Lounge- teacher/reader/blogger, great combo!
  
• Travis, 100 Scope Notes- reporter of an incredible amount of booky news
  
• Natasha, Maw Books Blog- amazingly prolific reader and reviewer

Those are some big name book blogging folks, and I certainly appreciate the work that they have done. Now they're handing it over to me and these lovely readers:

• Amy, Big Brother is Reading- children's book lover and blogger
  
• Andi, A Wrung Sponge- librarian and blogger
• Lori, Lori Calabrese Writes- author and blogger
  
• Bethany, Your Friendly Neighborhood Librarian- librarian and blogger

Yes, I'm in fine, fine company, and I look forward to our upcoming discussions on these seven finalists:






The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

Jeremy Draws a Monster by Peter McCarty

The Listeners by Gloria Whelan

All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon

The Book that Eats People by John Perry

Silly Tilly by Eileen Spinelli






Come Valentine's Day, we'll know these books in and out, and we'll be ready to name the 2009 Fiction Picture Book Cybils winner!


Off to the library this week,