Welcome to the Cybils Award Challenge

Nov

30 categories : General

cybilschallengebutton According to the website, The Cybils Awards are “designed to reward children’s and young adult authors and illustrators whose books combine the highest literary merit and ‘kid appeal’.” In doing so, the awards also hope to “foster a sense of community among bloggers who write about children’s and YA literature….”.

Well what better way to foster and promote community than with a good old fashioned challenge! So it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Cybils Award Challenge where participants are encouraged to read from The Cybils Award nominees for the given year.

Please note that this challenge is in no way endorsed by or affiliated with the actual Cybils Awards or it’s organizers. This concept was born of a personal challenge I made for myself that others expressed interest in participating in as well.

How Will It Work?

Challenge will run from December 1, 2009 through December 31, 2010
Anyone can join, you don’t have to blog to play along
Challengers can choose to participate in as many of the categories listed below as they want
Challengers may not mix books from across multiple categories
Challengers do not need to construct a reading list just decide as you go however the mood strikes you
Challengers may participate at any of the levels indicated below
All books used as part of the challenge must be from the 2009 reading lists linked below
Books read can overlap with other challenges you are participating in
Challengers can read in any format (ie: audio, e-book, print)

Levels of Participation

Categorically Speaking – choose to read all books in a category
Halfway There – choose to read 50% of books in a category
Rule of Fours – choose to read 1/4 or 3/4 of books in a category
Pick A Number – choose to read a specific number of books in a category
Shorties Rule – choose to read books in a specific short list (finalists will be publicized Jan 1, 2010)

Fun Stuff

As part of the fun there will be author interviews, guest posts, giveaways and a grand prize drawing for a $100 gift card to Borders Books.

To qualify for entry in the drawing a challenger must choose the “Categorically Speaking” level of participation, must complete all books within that category and must post a review of each either on a blog, a social networking site or bookstore site (ie: Amazon, B&N, Borders or some other store you may affiliate with). Ultimately you must provide to me some sort of tangible review in order for it to count towards completion of your entry to the giveaway drawing.

Sign up

Interested in participating? Hop on over to the Sign Up page and add your name to the Mr. Linky. Challengers can join in at any time during the year there is no deadline for participation.