The Cybils are the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards, and this is the fourth year I'll be a first-round panelist in the Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction category. I love being a panelist: our job is to read widely from among the nominated books and, after lots of discussion, come up with a shortlist (that's last year's) of five to seven titles that combine literary merit and kid appeal. Congratulations to this year's Cybils panelists and judges across all categories, but especially those in mg sff: I"m looking forward to a fantastic fall!

Nominations for the Cybils don't open October 1, but I've already started ramping up my reading--with well over 100 mg sff titles nominated each year, it's the only way to come close to reading them all. I have some favorites, and some fall books I'm eagerly anticipating; for now, I'm keeping track of my reading on Goodreads (please look for me over there).

I'll continue posting about all sorts of books here, though!