Today opens the Cybils nomination process. If you don’t know, the Cybils are the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards. I didn’t participate last year or even follow it, but this year I intend to do just that! My focus will be on the fiction and non-fiction picture books. I am not a kidlit blogger, but in the next few months, you may see a few more posts about picture books as I try to read my way through a good portion of the nominees with my son!
Anyone can nominate a book that has been published in the last year in each category. Since I just nominated my first book for the Cybils, I thought it might be appropriate to share about it here because my son loves Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin. The other day when I said we were going to the library, he asked, “Can we get Pete the Cat?” Unfortunately (or fortunately for the other person), someone else had discovered it! We will have to find our own copy.
Pete the Cat loves his new white shoes,and celebrates by walking along singing his song. But then he steps in strawberries and his shoes turn red! Pete doesn’t cry, “Goodness, no!” He just changes his song. From red to blue to brown to WET, Pete loves his new shoes. In the end, he reaffirms that “it’s all good.” I love the affirmation that we can take whatever comes and keep positive. The pictures are simple and fun.
The book is also lots of fun to read. We sing the song when we get to the song page, and my son loves yelling out the new colors of Pete’s shoes. He also loves pretend eating the strawberries and blueberries.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a video of the authors singing the song as they read the book. I hope you love the book as much as we do.
Go nominate your own favorite picture books, middle grade, graphic novels, chapter books, YA novels and so forth from the past year!
