C is for Cybils

For April I'm Blogging the Alphabet through YA Book Awards!  Find out more Here!

Of course the C award would have to be the Cybils.  The Cybils awards are given each year by bloggers for the year's best children's and young adult titles.¹  I was incredibly proud this year to be chosen as a finalist judge for the Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction category.  It's great that the award has a separate category just for Fantasy and Science Fiction, and not just that but they have a separate Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction category as well!  The nominations and short list provide a great reading list every year to catch up on good YA that appealed to adult readers.  The Cybils are nominated by book bloggers and a finalist slate and a winner are chosen by two separate juries of bloggers.  The Cybils have been given out since 2006, and finalists and winner lists are available on the Cybils Website.

2011 Cybils Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction Finalists:
Angelfall by Susan Ee
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Blood Red Road by Moira Young - Winner
Misfit by Jon Skovron
Red Glove by Holly Black
The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
The Shattering by Karen Healey

2011 Cybils Middle Grade Fantasy and Science Fiction Finalists:
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale by Carmen Agra Deedy - Winner
Dragon Castle by Joseph Bruchac
Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby
The Inquisitor's Apprentice by Chris Moriarty
A Monster Calls: Inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd by Patrick Ness
Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George


¹ http://www.cybils.com/basic-contest-info.html

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea, crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner.

What's a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program - or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan - or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?

Welcome to the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Your tour guide? None other than Libba Bray, the hilarious, sensational, Printz Award-winning author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Going Bovine. The result is a novel that will make you laugh, make you think, and make you never see beauty the same way again.

This book is full of laughs.  In fact, the acknowledgements kinda make it seem like the whole premise started as a joke, and at times it really comes off as one: very tongue-in-cheek and good at making fun of itself.  That doesn’t mean Beauty Queens doesn’t have a serious message, though, nor that it isn’t a good book.  It’s a great book that can look at itself and laugh too.

The book’s loosely based off Lord of the Flies in a semi-dystopian future where The Corporation seems to own the country and The Corporation’s head is a shoo-in for President of the country.  There isn’t that much technological or societal change, though, other than some increasingly violent and stupid reality tv shows, so it could very well be a next-year kinda future.  I know, barely speculative fiction, but I liked this book so much I’m gonna call it good.  The characters are well fleshed out, and Bray does an excellent job of giving them distinct and separate personalities that hide under their perfect beauty queen veneer.  The plot twists are great as well, although the sheer number of people that end up on the ‘deserted’ island is a little unrealistic.  Mostly, though, this book is about its message.  It’s rather hard to pinpoint what it is, other than feminist, because it jumps around to many different things: you can be what you want to be, break your parents’ mold, don’t listen to society’s expectations of you, exploring sexuality is good, girls are strong and smart and just as capable as guys.  They’re delivered in such a satirical, laughable way, though, that they never get too preachy or seem droll.  They’re almost preachy, almost, but never quite there.   I highly recommend this book, it is worthy of the award accolades it has garnered.

B is for the Amelia Bloomer Project

For April I'm Blogging the Alphabet through YA Book Awards!  Find out more Here!

The Amelia Bloomer Project is a list of books put together by the American Library Association's (ALA's) Social Responsibilities Round Table’s Feminist Taskforce.  This Feminist Taskforce is a board of nine women  (currently) who are adult ALA members.  The purpose of the award is "Representing the best of the best from our annual booklist of appealing feminist books for young readers, ages birth through 18".¹ This means there is representation for not only contemporary YA, but nonfiction, middle grade, and even picture books.  There are no mandatory age or genre categories, and there is no winner, however there is a "Top Ten" list as well as the longer recognition list.  This list is split up into age groups which are split up into Fiction and NonFiction to make browsing the list a little easier.  There are usually 15-20 books in the YA Fiction Category.  The list was established in 2002, and lists dating from 2002 to 2012 are on the ALA's website and the Amelia Bloomer Project blog.

SF/F YA books on the 2012 Amelia Bloomer Project List:
Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Huntress by Malinda Lo
Mastiff by Tamora Pierce
Steel by Carrie Vaughn
When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

 ¹ http://ameliabloomer.wordpress.com/

Bloggiesta

I finished posting all my reviews on Goodreads, and I burned through Clarity last night (good!).  Here's what I have left today:

     ~ Finish Beauty Queens
     ~ Write 4 or 5 reviews (catchup)
     ~ Write 9 letter posts (gotta cache some so I'm not overwhelmed)
     ~ Post reviews on Goodreads (I'm behind)
     ~ Post reviews on Amazon (I've never done, but I should)
     ~ Tag old posts
     ~ Try to burn through at least one more book


I don't think I'll finish posting reviews on Amazon, but I'm going to at least get 30 done.  For now, though, writing reviews!

A is for Aurealis Awards

For April I'm Blogging the Alphabet through YA Book Awards!  Find out more Here!

Established in 1995, the Aurealis Awards recognize Australian Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.  Chimaera Publications convenes a jury of at least three people to look over submissions and choose a finalist list.  Another jury (I believe, the website is a little vague) chooses a winner from the finalists.  Anyone can submit a work through the Aurealis website.  There are a number of categories, and Young Adult has been one of them since the awards' inception. Children's Fiction is a more recent addition. Both of these categories cover works in Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror.  Young Adult has Novel and Short Fiction categories, and Children's Fiction has Picture Book and Children's Fiction (Middle Grade).

2011 YA Novel Finalists:
Shift by Em Bailey
Secrets of Carrick: Tantony by Ananda Braxton-­‐Smith
The Shattering by Karen Healey
Black Glass by Meg Mundell
Only Ever Always by Penni Russon

2011 YA Short Story Finalists:
"Nation of the Night” by Sue Isle
"Finishing School” by Kathleen Jennings
"Seventy-Two Derwents” by Cate Kennedy
"One Window” by Martine Murray
"The Patrician” by Tansy Rayner Roberts