On Saturday the long-awaited CYBILS Finalists were announced. As the organizer of the Nonfiction Picture Books, the last few days leading up to the announcement were intense with discussing our shortlists and coming to consensus about our shortlist.
Round One panelists were awesome:
Carol of Carol’s Corner
Doret of The Happy Nappy Bookseller
Karen of Literate Lives
Abby of Abby the Librarian
Mandy of ACPL Mock Sibert
Shirley of Simply Science
Their willingness to discuss and re-read, re-consider and question was phenomenal. Ranking, conversations, ranking again, and discussions is what made our list truly outstanding this year. The list seems strong, balanced and books that have great kid appeal.
Here’s our Nonfiction Picture Books shortlist for 2010:
Bones
by Steve Jenkins
Scholastic
Nominated by: Mary Ann Scheuer
Dinosaur Mountain: Digging into the Jurassic Age
by Deborah Kogan Ray
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Nominated by: Raymond Tumarkin
Henry Aaron’s Dream
by Matt Tavares
Candlewick Press
Nominated by: Margo Tanenbaum
Pop!: The Invention of Bubble Gum
by Meghan McCarthy
Simon & Schuster
Nominated by: Jess Pugh
Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up by Sitting Down
by Andrea Pinkney
Little, Brown
Nominated by: Allison Moore
Skit-Scat Raggedy Cat: Ella Fitzgerald
by Roxane Orgill
Candlewick Press
Nominated by: Derek Jones
The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According To Susy)
by Barbara Kerley
Scholastic
Nominated by: Jennifer Donovan
To me, every book or list has a great back story. These seven books are from a list of 112 titles which were nominated. Nominees in this category increased by 39 titles from last year. The books were pretty evenly divided between books about animals, people, historical events, and science.
Each title was ranked with criteria including originality, kid appeal, presentation of the material, quality of illustrations and writing.
Now Round Two begins as the round two judges begin rigorous discussions about our spectacular sevenover the next 6 weeks. The winner will be announced on February 14. More about the CYBILS can be found HERE.
Nonfiction Monday is hosted over at Charlotte’s Library. Enjoy another year of nonfiction books.
Happy Monday. Happy Reading.
MsMac
Check It Out 
I was delighted to see that my nomination made your short list. I also loved the Mark Twain book–several of the nominees I haven’t read yet but I’ll be looking for them at my library!