The 2013 Cybils season is almost here--applications for being a panelist will open on the 15th of August, and close the 31st. Excited about this as I always am, I thought it might be fun to go back and take a look at the authors who were the winners in the Cybils Elementary/MG sci fi/fantasy from years past, to see what they are up to now!
2007 The True Meaning of Smekday written by Adam Rex. I am rather abashed that I have never read this one, and will try to do so soon... Since 2007 Adam Rex has been busy writing, and illustrating, picture books (such as Frankenstein Takes the Cake, and the illustrations for Neil Gaiman's Chu's Day). He's also written a YA book, Fat Vampire, and two books of MG sci fi/fantasy series, Cold Cereal, and Unlucky Charms (which is eligible for the Cybils this year!).
2008 The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. Before it won the Newbery and the Carnegie Awards, it was shortlisted for the Cybils...and Neil Gaiman continues to be Neil Gaiman. I haven't read the forthcoming Fortunately the Milk (2013) yet, but it looks like a perfectly eligible contender for this year!
2009 Dreamdark: Silksinger (Faeries of Dreamdark) written by Laini Taylor. Laini had originally planned to write more books about the Faeries of Dreamdark, and I hope some day she will, but in the meantime she's working on the third book of the YA Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy.
2010 The Shadows (The Books of Elsewhere, Vol. 1) written by Jacqueline West. Happily for all of us who enjoyed this one lots, Jacqueline West has been busily writing more books in the series; the fourth book, The Strangers, came out in July, making it eligible for this year!
2011 The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale written by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright. Since Cheshire Cheese Cat, Carmen Agra Deedy has published The Return of the Library Dragon, for younger readers.
2012 The False Prince written by Jennifer Nielsen, and yay! the sequel, The Runaway King, was published this year (making it eligible), and the third book, The Shadow Throne, is coming March 2014.
So if you want to help pick the 2013 winner, in this or any of the various other Cybils categories, do throw your name into the hat this year! I'm the category organizer for Elementary/MG Speculative Fiction (we've tweaked the name this year), and I'll be putting up a post in the next day or so with all the detais about what being a panelist entails....
(Hmm... seems that blue and orangy/yellows are the cover color schemes most likely to win. They do all look very nice together....)
That is a nice line-up of books. And it is sad in a strange way when an author starts a good series, hits it big with another, and then has to put that first series on the backburner.
ReplyDeleteIn this case it was more a matter of the first series not having been as wildly popular as it deserved to be...sigh.
DeleteI'm putting the 15th on my calendar! I don't know yet whether I'll apply for MG or YA SFF, but you've certainly encouraged me to think about it!
ReplyDeleteI, of course, would say that MG is more fun, and slightly less work....
DeleteI was always so sad that Laini Taylor's Dreamdark series was pushed to the side because it wasn't popular enough for publishers to want more of. Those first two books are among my favourite books and I fell head over heels in love with the first one back in 2008. Alas.
ReplyDeleteYou just reminded me that I am woefully behind in my Books of Elsewhere reading! I need to get me some books 3 and 4 STAT!
(And I read the Runaway King this spring and loved it as much as The False Prince. Go, go, Canadian authors!)
Such good books, and I can't believe you haven't read Smekday yet. Thanks for this great wrap-up. I can't believe that it's almost Cybils season again already!
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