2008 Cybil Nominees Include LGBT Books

The 2008 Cybil nominees are here! Never heard of them? They bill themselves as “the premier Web awards for children’s literature,” and since they’ve been around for three years now, they have some claim to the title. The books are nominated by the public, and a panel of literary bloggers chooses the finalists.

Several LGBT-themed books are among this year’s nominees. Finalists will be announce January 1, 2009, and the winners on February 14.

Among the nominees in the Fiction Picture Book category this year is Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah Brannen, about which I’ve written many times before.

In the Young Adult Novels category is Down to the Bone, by Mayra Lazara Dole, about a Cuban-American teen struggling to come out. I haven’t read it myself yet, but it’s gotten good reviews from gay arts editors and librarians alike.

In Graphic Novels (Young Adult) is Skim, by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, the tale of a Goth girl at an all-girls school in Toronto, observing her classmates with a cynical eye yet searching for acceptance. She develops a crush on her female English teacher, which qualifies the book as having LGBT content, but the theme is really much broader.

I may have missed some other LGBT-inclusive books on the lists. If I have, and you spot them, please leave a comment. (There are also a bunch of non-LGBT books that I would have loved in my tomboy youth, like Sea Queens: Women Pirates Around the World and Amelia Earhart: The Legend of the Lost Aviator.)

If you have any interest in children’s/YA books, however, don’t click over to the site unless you have a lot of free time. It’s a real treasure trove to explore.