Nonfiction Middle Grade & Young Adult

Welcome to our second trilogy of posts about the panelists and judges for the 2012 Cybils Beginning last week and continuing through September 30, 2012 we are blogging about each of the Cybils categories as we count down toward our opening day for 2012 nominations: October 1, 2012.

We are working our way backwards through the alphabet, so today’s featured Category is Nonfiction Middle Grade and Young Adult and our chair Gina Ruiz. Do read on, as yours truly is a judge this year … and has been delinquent in promoting her panel!

Category: Nonfiction Middle Grade and Young Adult
Category Chair: Gina Ruiz
Gina blogs at AmoXcalli and can be found on Twitter @GinaRuiz

Gina Ruiz reads a lot, blogs a lot (books, cooking, online journal, poetry), fiddles around in virtual worlds and is big on promoting multicultural literature. Her idea of a grand vacation is going to Book Expo America or visiting dusty bookshops in any city. She speaks hardcover, paperback, Kindle, Nook and Spanglish. Most recently spotted at the zoo with her partners in bookish madness – Jasmine and Aiden (they’re gonna be writers!). Sometimes she has to wrestle them for the books she wants to review.

Round 1

Louise Capizzo, librarian
The NonFiction Detectives and @Lcapizzo
Louise Capizzo is a Youth Services Librarian at a public library in Scarborough, Maine. She holds a Master of Library Science degree from Simmons College. Louise has written reviews for Publisher’s Weekly, AudioFile Magazine, and Kirkus Reviews. Louise has served on many committees including the Maine Cream of the Crop committee (2001-2009), the Maine Student Book Award Committee (2006-2010), the 2011 John Newbery Committee, and served as a middle grade and young adult nonfiction judge for the 2011 CYBILS awards.

Karen Ball, librarian
Mrs. B’s Favorites and @batgirl_books
I’m a middle school Library Media Specialist. According to Wonder Woman, my main super power is reading at near light speed.

Stephanie Charlefour, librarian, parent
Love, Life, Read. and @scharle4
Youth & Teen Librarian…feeling my way through the ups & downs…mom, photographer, crafter and book lover.

Justin Colussy-Estes, teacher, parent
Guys Lit Wire and @guyslitwire
Justin Colussy-Estes is a stay at home dad, college English instructor, and bookseller at Little Shop of Stories, a children’s bookstore in Decatur, GA. He’s in the middle of a 25 year love affair with graphic novels, YA, and chapter books. He also runs a monthly middle school boy’s book group and the store blog little blog of stories.

Jessica Tackett, librarian
Her Life with Books and @herlifewthbooks
Boston Librarian, Kid-Lit Junkie, Queen of the Nerdy Spreadsheet.

Round Two

Terry Doherty, parent, librarian wanna-be
Family Bookshelf and @TheReadingTub
After 20 years of government service in a job she can’t tell you about, Terry took the title Mom and has never looked back. There was something magical about that first picture book she shared with her daughter … reminding her of her own love of all things bookish. Even when given the chance, she’ll pick children’s books and young adult titles over anything written for adults. Just ask her middle school student daughter … Terry can’t stop talking about all those great so-called children’s books she reads.

Brenda Kahn, teacher, librarian,
Prose and Kahn

After working in a K – 8 school for 10 years, I left tenure and 98 sick days to become librarian at a nearby 5 – 8th grade middle school. Change can be hard, but it’s good to stretch. I am so happy to specialize on the middle school age group. Middle schoolers are so interesting and unpredictable! The students I work with are good readers who really keep me on my toes. I like to say that reading is my second job. I read about a book a day, almost exclusively literature for children. While I have my favorite genres, I try to read across all the genres, from picture books (one is never too old for picture books) through YA. I try to blog about each book that I read. While I read, I try to think of which of my students would enjoy the book. My reviews tend to be positive because of this, but I will be honest about what didn’t work for me or weaknesses that I perceive.

Kara Dean, parent, librarian
Not Just for Kids and @tardisgrl
When I’m not reading or writing I’m usually watching the Red Sox or Doctor Who. I’m the Youth Services Librarian at a local library and a reviewer for Booklist. I have a beautiful daughter and an indulgent husband. Oh yeah–and I love rats.

Ritchie Partington, librarian, teacher
Richie’s Picks
My interests lie in having a lasting impact on the education and life-long reading habits of children and adolescents, participating in the employment, perfection of, and teaching of twenty-first century information literacy and teacher-librarian collaboration strategies and continuing to share and augment my extensive knowledge of Children’s and Young Adult literature.

Edith Campbell, librarian
CrazyQuiltEdi and @crazyquilts
Ramblings of an urban highschool librarian. Single. Old. Very old. On a good day, I even wear the traditional library bun.