Happy Valentine's Day and the CYBILS Awards!

Valentine's Day offers a new way to give. Join the celebration with International Book Giving Day!

#bookgivingday poster art by Marianne Dubuc

Download posters, bookmarks and more. But most of all, show your love by giving books.
Local schools, community centers, shelters, daycares, and crisis pregnancy centers can all use good children's books, and they are well-placed to get the books into the hands of kids who need them.

While you're giving, don't forget to treat yourself to a new book. Supporting authors, illustrators, and publishing houses is the only way to keep books on the store shelves. Share your love of books today and everyday.

I was privileged to participate in the first round judging for the CYBILS Awards last fall. The winners have finally been announced. So head over to their site to see the top picks in each category, and do yourself a favor by reading the nominees as well. There were dozens of outstanding books nominated. Browse the CYBILS blog to read blurbs and reviews.

Congratulations to the winners!
You'll find some of my favorites reviewed here, and many of the elementary and juvenile non-fiction nominees reviewed on my Goodreads account.

Mira Forecasts the Future, by Kell Andrews and Lissy Marlin
Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion, by Alex T. Smith
A Morning With Grandpa, by Sylvia Liu and Christina Forshay
Around America to Win the Vote: Two Suffragists, a Kitten, and 10,000 Miles, by Mara Rockliff  and Hadley Hooper
Six Dots: A Story of Louis Braille, by Jen Bryant and Boris Kulikov
The William Hoy Story: How A Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game, by Nancy Churnin and Jez Tuya
The Kid from Diamond Street: The Extraordinary Story of Baseball Legend Edith Houghton, by Audrey Vernick and Steven Salerno
Kid Artists: True Tales of Childhood from Creative Legends, by David Stabler and by Doogie Horner
Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois, by Amy Novesky and Isabelle Arsenault
Dorothea's Eyes: Dorothea Lange Photographs the Truth, by Barbara Rosenstock and Gerard DuBois
Antsy Ansel: Ansel Adams, A Life in Nature, by Cindy Jenson-Elliot and Christy Hale
Seeing Things: A Kids' Guide to Looking at Photographs, by Joel Meyerowitz
Their Great Gift: Courage, Sacrifice, and Hope in a New Land, by John Coy and Wing Young Huie
Glow: Animals With Their Own Night-Lights, by W. H. Beck
The Great Leopard Rescue, by Sandra Markle and Tom and Pat Leeson
Poop Detectives: Working Dogs in the Field, by Ginger Wadsworth
Welcome to New Zealand: A Nature Journal, by Sandra Morris
The Slowest Book Ever, by April Pulley Sayre and Kelly Murphy
Animal Planet Animal Atlas, ed. by James Buckley Jr
In Focus: Close-Ups, Cross Sections, Cutaways, by Libby Walden and various illustrators
The Human Body: The Story of How We Protect, Repair, and Make Ourselves Stronger, by H. P. Newquist
Mighty Jack, by Ben Hatke
Ghosts, by Reina Telgemeier
Save Me A Seat, by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan
The Scourge, by Jennifer A Nielson and Tim O'Brien