Cybils KidLit Challenge review #1

I'm slowly dipping my toe back into the blogging world after a crazy week last week. More on that to come later, but for now, I'm focusing on books again. I'm happily reporting on my progress so far in the Cybils KidLit Challenge that we're hosting over on 5 Minutes for Books. As Jennifer is being really good to point out, this challenge is not affiliated with the official Cybils Award, but hosted by us at 5M4B to share our love for great children's literature and spreading the joy Jennifer and I have experienced being a part of the Cybils judging teams.

I made the relatively small goal of reading most of or all of the 2010 Cybils winners, twelve in all. I started out slow and predictable, and here's my report for this month on my progress.

Do you know how I was a round one panelist on the Fiction Picture Book category this past year? Did you hear me talk about that once or twice or a gazillion times? Well, I was overjoyed to read 249 of the 262 nominated books (that's 95% for those of you keeping score at home!), and I kept my own choices for the shortlist recorded at home. (Honestly, I'm so freaking proud of my organizational documents for recording the books that I received from the publisher or checked out from the library- my charts were awesome.) One book sat at the top of my shortlist from the first time that I read it aloud to Red and Pudge. I simply adored it from the get-go. It makes for a laugh out loud reading session each and every time I read it aloud- for the kids, for my husband, and for me. I lobbied pretty darn hard for this book to make it onto the official list of finalists, and when February 14th came around, I was crossing my fingers insanely hard. I was over the moon to discover that the round two judges must have loved it as much as I did, for David Ezra Stein's Interrupting Chicken was honored with the 2010 Cybils Award for Fiction Picture books!

I first reviewed Interrupting Chicken over on 5 Minutes for Books (linked to my review), as part of a multi-book post focusing on nominees that were good for laughter-filled reading times. I told pretty much everyone I knew who has small children to go find this book at the library. I read this book to any child who came over my house and was willing to sit down with me for a few minutes. I have even dreamed about what it will be like to read this book to a preschool class when I go back to teaching. I really, really love this book.

So obviously, I've read this Cybils winner, oh only about a hundred times. This past month, I also checked out two other 2010 winners, which were big winners in my book, too. In the Easy Readers category, the kids and I wholeheartedly agree with the judges who named Mo Willems' We Are in a Book! as the winner. Oh dear, if you haven't read any Elephant & Piggie books yet, this is a wonderful one to start with. The personalities of these two adorable characters shine through stronger than ever before- their idiosyncrasies and wackiness are as lovable as ever. Really, I love this one for its unique perspective of book characters' being aware of their book-characterness. Fun and funny, smart and inventive, as Mo Willems always is.

Finally, I borrowed a book that had graced my oldest son's library shelf months back and was honored with the Cybils award in Middle Grade Fiction, The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger. JAM couldn't stop talking about how much he enjoyed this one when he read it, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much it delighted me, as well. Through different characters' stories, the mystery of the paper Yoda finger puppet is explored, with some voices clearly decrying the silliness of the whole thing, while others can't help but believe in its power. I appreciated the gentle introduction to the world of the middle school, which was completely appropriate for my ten year old to read, yet still addressed some of the realities of school and personal life during this time.

So, only three down so far, and I honestly started with the easiest picks for me, but I'm still hoping to get to those other categories that go out of my comfort zone a little bit, too. If you want to link up your own Cybils book reviews as part of our Cybils KidLit Challenge, come on over! 


Loving the Cybils all year long,