![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Morris.jpg\" "\\"Morris\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nAt the seminar, we learned from experienced members of ALSC’s book evaluation committees. They trained us how to look at books from an award committee’s perspective<\/a>.<\/p>\n Of course, that experience made me want nothing more than to be part of a book evaluation committee. In March, I decided to join Capitol Choices<\/a>, a DC-area group of children’s book lovers who choose a hundred outstanding children’s books each year. They meet monthly, and I learned so much from being part of this group — and was made aware of so many outstanding books published this year.<\/p>\n But the culmination of all this was getting to be on the Cybils Panel for Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy<\/a>. I can’t begin to express how much I enjoyed this. Yes, it did take all my free time for the past three months. Yes, it was worth it. And today all the shortlists<\/a> are announced!<\/p>\n Our list<\/a> was hammered out with a whole lot of give and take. This is not the list I would have chosen on my own, but I think that makes it all the stronger, and gives it more broad appeal.<\/p>\n Glancing at the other shortlists, the thing that tickled me most was that the Easy Readers panel chose both Penny and Her Song<\/a><\/em> and Penny and Her Doll<\/a><\/em>. Yes!<\/p>\n And I encourage librarians and parents to use the Cybils shortlists as lists. In our panel, we strove for a certain amount of variety. In the first place, many different types of books are represented. But then each list gives you a nice variety of the best books published last year in that particular category. And the winners? Those will be announced on Valentine’s Day.<\/p>\n But what list would I have chosen myself? I’m glad you asked!<\/p>\n Because on January 1st, I also announce my 2012 Sonderbooks Stand-outs<\/a>!<\/p>\n You’ll see there’s a lot of overlap between the Cybils shortlist and my own Children’s Fiction: Science Fiction and Fantasy list and also my Teen Fiction list. (Titles that appeal to tweens are hard to place. If they have teen protagonists, I tend to put them in Teen Fiction, but some of those were placed in our Middle Grade group.) Of course this should come as no surprise.<\/p>\n But my Sonderbooks Stand-outs are carefully chosen with no criteria at all. I don’t consider literary merit or artistic value or child appeal. I simply remember back over the year and tell about which ones brought me the most enjoyment. These are my favorites, the books I loved most out of all the books I read this year. All this practice on award committees was fun, but I do find it refreshing to list the books I enjoyed without having to defend my choices. I loved these, okay?<\/p>\n My son asked what my very favorite book of the year was, and I have to go with Code Name Verity<\/a><\/em>, my Teen Fiction #1 book.<\/p>\n You may think these are an awful lot of stand-outs. To put it in perspective, let me give you my stats for the year, as far as I was able to count them. These are the books I read in 2012:<\/p>\n Adult Fiction: 19 (A lot less this year, since I was reading so many new children’s and teen books) Grand Total: 280 books. Not bad….<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTeen Fiction: 38
\nChildren’s Fiction: 78 (Yes, this was all about the Cybils. Capitol Choices, too, though.)
\nAdult Nonfiction: 48
\nChildren’s Nonfiction: 37
\nPicture Books: 45 (At least that’s the number I thought worth noting.)
\nRereads (All genres): 15<\/p>\n