A Cybils Roundup Post!

Hey everyone!

The 2017 Cybils Award Winners have been announced! In case you don’t remember, I had the privilege of being a judge this year in the YA Fiction category and was able to prioritize some AMAZING books from 2017 because of it. We wrapped up our judging responsibilities over the weekend, and the winners were announced today! Hurray!

And a big congratulations to Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson for taking the top prize in the YA Fiction category!

I’m not going to go too much into things because I’m going to review each of the books I read for this award in the coming months (as pre-written posts while I’m on semi-hiatus in the spring… or, at least, that’s the plan), but here’s the rundown of the seven books that were finalists in the YA Fiction category and a one sentence recap of my feelings. (I’m putting these in the order I read them!)

1. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Potentially my favorite book of 2017 (that I read in 2017) – so necessary in the current state of our country.
2. The Lake Effect by Erin McCahan. A character-driven story I had to sit with for a while to truly appreciate.
3. A Short History of the Girl Next Door by Jared Reck. Jared Reck wrecked me, but this didn’t stick with me like I thought it might.
4. Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu. An excellent introduction to feminism and activism, but could have been more.
5. Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali. I loved this book so much, as I related to Janna on all the levels (plus, we need more Muslim MCs in YA!).
6. The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. I hated this book a lot and I’m okay with my feelings on it.
7. Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson. So many books that tackle race and class and inequality in YA are tragic and violent and this book had some of that. But it was hopeful, and I needed that. I’m so happy we were able to agree that this one should be the winner. ❤

It was a whirlwind month of reading (as I was doing reading challenges and listening to other audiobooks, too!) and I regret nothing. Thank you to the Cybils committee for choosing me to be a Round 2 judge! I was happy to do it and enjoyed the experience immensely!

Happy reading, y’all!

-A.