Cybils KidLit Challenge review #2

Over on 5 Minutes for Books, Jennifer and I had the pleasure of sharing many reviews of the Cybils Award nominated titles we read in our respective judging categories last fall. Jennifer had the fabulous idea to extend the fun to our readers, and thus the Cybils KidLit Challenge was born. Readers can set their own goals in connection to reading Cybils-nominated or winning books, and each month we ask folks to link up their reviews or round-up posts.

I opted to go down a relatively easy path-- I pledged to read the twelve winning titles across the variety of categories. In March, I shared my impressions after reading the winners in the Fiction Picture Book, Easy Reader and Middle Grade Fiction categories, in my first Cybils KidLit Challenge review.

This month, I continued to go slowly, and I continued to be impressed by the fantastic winners!

First up, the Short Chapter Books category. Jacqueline Jules' Zapato Power: Freddie Ramos Takes Off was crowned the winner, and it features cute comic-strip style illustrations by Miguel Benitez. I have to admit that I haven't read this with any of my kids yet, just on my own, because I don't think any of them are the right age for it right now. But, when the time is right, I imagine this fun little story of a boy and a mysterious pair of purple sneakers will delight both of my younger ones. The chapters are quite short, making this perfect for newly independent readers, and this only the beginning of the series, so children can follow along with Freddie's adventures even longer!

Let's move onto an absolutely remarkable book, the winner in the Poetry category, Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Rhyme by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Josee Masse. Wowie zowie, this is just beautiful. The concept for each of these free form poems is that they can be read two different ways. Presented the first time as one character's perspective from a familiar fairy tale, the poem is then 'flipped' and read backwards, bringing to light a quite different perspective. I adore the concept for it's amazing creativity. Young children can appreciate the gorgeous illustrations and the lovely poems, while older children will surely be awed by the differences that can be conveyed simply by changing the order of the same set of words!

I've saved the very best of this month's Cybils reading for last- a title nominated by 5 Minutes for Books' own, Jennifer Donovan! The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) by Barbara Kerley and illustrated perfectly by Edwin Fotheringham was named the winner in the Nonfiction Picture Book category, and I am so, so happy that this book is out there to give kids a little taste of the fabulousness that is the Mark Twain story. Twain's daughter Susy kept a journal for over a year in which she was recording stories about her father, a biography written from a teenaged daughter's familial perspective. This incredible picture book presents the background of their life at the time, including actual snippets of Susy's writings in smaller-sized "journal" insets between the traditional-sized pages. Everything about this book is fun- the quotes, the observations, the illustrations that perfectly capture Mark Twain. And, having attended college in Twain's wife's hometown, the very town in which he and his family spent their summers as well as where Twain is buried, I was DELIGHTED to read the section about his "special octagonal study" where he worked on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I spent four years of my life walking by that study on the campus of Elmira College where it now stands, and I was constantly amazed at how close I could get to a place of such wonder. I literally yelped with glee when I turned the page and saw it depicted in the book!


If you've been reading some Cybils nominated or winning books lately, we'd love to hear what you thought. Link up with us or comment on our Cybils KidLit Challenge!


In love with children's lit,