It’s my seventh year with the Cybils and I’m still madly in love. No seven-year itch here. So why am I so in love?
Every year towards the fading of summer, a Yahoo Group email starts flooding my inbox. This group includes us category organizers and the dynamic, brilliant women that do all the technical wonder and behind the scenes stuff that makes the Cybils work – things like databases, website stuff, forms, spreadsheets and logos. The discussions are lively and fill my day. We talk about what we learned from previous years, go over our notes from then, discuss ways to make the Cybils better and occasionally veer off to talk about our personal lives, triumphs and joys, stumbles and falls. We’ve become a tightly-knit and comfortable sweater of a group; friends that support and cheer each other on in our endeavors all while keeping strong to the business at hand – that of the Cybils.
These women I have the honor of being in a group with are amazing. They care so passionately about children, about books, about libraries, about literacy. Some are teachers or librarians – my heroes. They battle shrinking budgets and find ways to engage, inspire and promote the love of reading to the communities they service and it consumes their time in and out of work, yet they find a way to carve out time for the Cybils. They are passionate about this award too, you see and believe in it wholeheartedly. They do this every year and by the conversations I see that start the Award season, they do it with love and uncensored devotion.
And so I am in love. I am in love with this award, the process of making it better and no matter the cost to my personal or work time. I too, am devoted to it and to the amazing superheroes that make it happen year after year. I’m in love with the bravery of the intrepid souls that dare to sign on for our judging panels knowing full well they will be reading stacks and stacks of books with no reward, other than virtual chocolate. I am in love with the humor, the passion and the prodigious knowledge of the written form.
Seven-year itch? Not even close. I’m in it for the long haul.
Please consider applying to be one of our judges. It will be the best decision you’ve ever made and one the most rewarding things you do. If you apply to be on the Young Adult Nonfiction panel, I promise to give you lots of virtual chocolate and email you to talk about what you’re reading. I’m taking e-books this year too, so come with Kindle or other e-reader in hand.
