Cybils Awards Update: Finalists Announced

This was my second year participating in this review process. This year I took a more intentional approach when it came to the summer reading. I did not check out all the eligible books. Instead, I allowed myself to make a judgment call from book summaries. "I know myself," I said. "Certain books could have a chance of my nominating them and others simply wouldn't."

This definitely meant less effort exerted when it came to hauling stacks of books from library hold shelves to my car and back, but it did not directly impact the reading when it came to the list of nominated books. Throughout the fall, I pushed to make sure I read every one. It never occurred to me to do any different.

When it came time to discuss the committee's short listed books, I was not surprised by the energy around disability awareness and neurodiversity. This focus grew in my professional work environment as well. However, the final posted list of finalists did leave me reflecting. Other aspects of our review conversation gave me pause as a microcosm of larger systemic inequities.

How do we choose what to read? What does this mean for representation but also for economic impact? How large a role does lack of accessibility overall play in reading choices? How do we manage our initial effort to correct inequities? How do our small choices become large without us knowing. . .

For his birthday, I gave my dad a copy of Caste by Isabel Wilkerson with advice I should have headed for myself. "I bought this copy for you to read and then give to someone else."

Now daily, I hear him talk aloud about what surprises him, or what he thinks others don't know. Sadly, he is only talking to himself. So did I.

Any lingering disappointment I need to own by virtue of my own silence. True, I had devoted a great deal of time to reading, but I had not spent any effort learning what others were reading. This ultimately mattered. Instead of worrying about my dad keeping his reading to himself, I should have been worrying about myself.

Ultimately, I wrote the description for Our Shouts Echo. This book was one of the few I fought for that had a chance to make the finalist list. The characters in this book were ones I wanted to lift up, thought their experiences are not near enough for all the young people looking for themselves in stories. It is a narrative with an ending that is only another beginning, which I think appropriate for me and Cybils this year.

Our finalists were announced on January 1, 2025. Round 2 judges are now reading the finalists to choose one winner per category. Winners will be announced on February 14. Read about the YA finalists.