"At its heart, the Cybils Awards is a group of readers passionate about seeking out and recognizing books that portray diversity, inclusion, and appropriate representation for children and teens. To accomplish that goal, the Cybils Awards works to recognize books written for children and young adults that combine both the highest literary merit and popular appeal."
These finalists are high caliber and brilliant in their own way! We have to be pretty fastidious in our evaluations of them. Sometimes it's agonizing to narrow it down to just one book.
If you are a librarian of any kind, and don't have these titles, you should add them to your must purchase list.
Across a Field of Starlight by Blue Delliquanti
This is a story about friendship against a backdrop of war. It highlights the evil perpetuated on both sides of the conflict. In the middle of it exists Lu's colony - a utopian environment where people can grow into who they truly want to become without living in fear.
Early in the book Lu, and Fassen, part of the rebel army, meet and become friends. They manage to stay in touch across time and space - growing up under the influence of different cultures and systems.
The art is just gorgeous. The colours are beautiful. I like the use of different colours to show different places. I love the diversity in the characters - skin colour, body shapes, & gender. I like that all this is really irrelevant to the story. Unfortunately, I found this one confusing. A lot of times I had no idea what was going on. Some it was because the frames are very busy with minimal neutral space. At other times - especially the wordless action scenes, it was a challenge to even guess what was happening. While the text was readable, it is small, and some panels are heavy with it. The gutters are very small and sometimes the white disappears and they almost bleed into each other. It contributes to making it very busy.
The Greatest Thing by Sarah Winifred Searle
Ultimately, this is a story of friendship. Winifred's two best friends have moved to a private school and she starts the school year feeling alone. As she supports other students in her independent study time, she makes new friends. The novel follows the progression of this friendship across one year.
I liked the character development of Win. She grew a lot from the beginning of the book to the end. There are a lot of things to unpack here: mental health issues that include anxiety, eating disorders, and body dysmorphia. It addresses gender fluidity, sexual attraction, and romantic love. I like that therapy and medication are shown as a way to deal with the mental health issues. I like that aside from April's parents, all the adults in this book are smart, compassionate, and caring.
I liked parts of the art. I loved the zine illustrations. I liked how the images become black and white when referencing the past. I liked the soft pastels in the backgrounds and neutral spaces and how these contrasted with the characters. Unfortunately, the facial expressions of the different characters didn't work for me.
Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy
Huda, her four sisters, and their parents have just moved to the town of Dearborn, Michigan, a small town with a large Muslim population. This story (a fictionalized version of her own life) follows her across the span of a year. She struggles to fit in, make friends, and be a good Muslim. Along the way she has to deal with racism on the outside, and her lack of self confidence on the inside.
This is a complicated coming of age novel. Figuring out who you are is one of the big jobs for everyone at this time in a person's life! (Actually, this is really an ongoing issue)
I like that we get a strong sense of what Huda's life is like. She comes across as a solid person dealing with the kinds of issues most readers will connect to, even if they are not Muslim. The microaggressions - especially name mispronunciation, are one aspect that other people will relate too. Fitting in and feeling like you belong is another.
The book contains lot of negative space, but it works with the abstract art style. Yet there are times when the abstractness distracted me from the story. In a couple of places the open mouths merged with the hijab. I was also distracted by the amorphous hands. Also, I never understood what was going on with the one sister who is only shown in outline.
M Is for Monster by Talia Dutton
Flora, a scientist, manages to bring Maura, her dead sister back to life, but the person who wakes up has no memories, or even the aptitude of her. With the threat of being taken apart and worked on again, and with the help of Maura's ghost, M manages to fake it for a while. Eventually she can't keep the subterfuge up and has a major falling out with Flora and Maura. In the end, Maura, and Flora, with the help of her partner, come to accept that M is a person in her own right.
This is Interesting remake of Frankenstein. In this instance, rather than community being afraid of her, they wanted her to be someone else. In this way it addresses the coming of age issues of adolescence: figuring out who you are away from what/who the significant others in your life want you to be. There is also the issue of Flora's guilt to be resolved. It would be interesting to pair this up with the original.
This is Interesting remake of Frankenstein. In this instance, rather than community being afraid of her, they wanted her to be someone else. In this way it addresses the coming of age issues of adolescence: figuring out who you are away from what/who the significant others in your life want you to be. There is also the issue of Flora's guilt to be resolved. It would be interesting to pair this up with the original.
The world building is mostly good, but the concept of magical science isn't really clear to me. The characters are well developed, although there was some muddle at first figuring out the difference between the two sisters. I am a huge fan of green and loved the shades in here, yet I'm meh about so much of it, and don't like that the cover doesn't match. It is full of diversity in that there are both asian and queer characters. While I appreciated the story line and was connected to M, I wish there was more to this.
Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese-American by Laura Gao
This is a rich and complex memoir. Laura Gao was born in Wuhan province in China. Her parents left her behind when they moved to the United States. When she was four they brought her to live with them in Texas where she was surrounded by white people. While she was struggling to learn English, a new baby arrived. Fitting in became her goal. Yuyang became Laura.
She spent the next 20 or so years negotiating her identity. It isn't until she was in college that she managed to address her internalized racism and connect with her Chinese roots. She found belonging in the Chinese diaspora there. All this intersects with coming to grips with her queer identity. The story flips back and forth in time, but it isn't jarring.
Laura Gao's story is eminently readable. I appreciated the use of different types and colours of font to acknowledge different languages. I love the direct honesty. I especially loved the warm colour palette in this book and the contrast between these warm colours with the blues and greens. She uses different coloured backgrounds to reference different settings. Wuhan is pastel green. America is white. I adored that Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese is mentioned as an important book.
She spent the next 20 or so years negotiating her identity. It isn't until she was in college that she managed to address her internalized racism and connect with her Chinese roots. She found belonging in the Chinese diaspora there. All this intersects with coming to grips with her queer identity. The story flips back and forth in time, but it isn't jarring.
Laura Gao's story is eminently readable. I appreciated the use of different types and colours of font to acknowledge different languages. I love the direct honesty. I especially loved the warm colour palette in this book and the contrast between these warm colours with the blues and greens. She uses different coloured backgrounds to reference different settings. Wuhan is pastel green. America is white. I adored that Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese is mentioned as an important book.
This wasn't my choice as winner, but I'm happy it won.
Numb to This: Memoir of a Mass Shooting by Kindra Neely
When she was in college, there was a mass shooting at Kindra Neely's school. It traumatized her. At one point she started to commit suicide. Thinking about a friend changed her mind. She thought she would recover, but suffered from ongoing PTSD. When she graduated from college and went off to study art, things got worse. Eventually she got help and created this graphic novel to help other survivors.
This book was profound. It takes us inside the mind of a survivor of a mass shooting. Readers become aware of the long term consequences of what it means to live through such an event. It shows us the crassness of politicians, the media, the NRA, and even those who claim to be on your side.
I liked how the colours change based on how Kindra was feeling and what was going on in the story. It enhanced the mood of the book and build connections.
With shootings in schools and other public space in the US continuing unabated, this is an important book not only for other survivors, but for everyone in the country. People need to understand what is happening to our children.
This was my first choice to win - mostly because as someone from the outside looking at the school shootings in the USA, it felt like the most pertinent book.
Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes & Dawud Anyabwile
Tommie Smith tells the story of his life. He was born into a sharecropper's life. When the family was forced to move, he finally went to school full time. He got involved in athletics and ended up winning all kinds of scholarships to university. At university he focused on track and field at the same time as he became involved in politics. Eventually he became an athlete and was chosen to participate in the 1968 summer Olympics. He and John Carlos were the two medal winners who raised black gloved fists int he air. That action cost both of them dearly. (They don't mention it in the book - but Peter Norman, the Australian who won silver, also suffered because he was wearing a Black Human rights badge.)
This biography is an important one. While it has been told in other iterations, the graphic novel format introduces YA readers today both to the history of life for Black people in America, and introduces them to a remarkable true superhero to look up to. I remember the furor over the salute, but this narrative introduced me to the man behind this action and the consequences of it.
Dawud Anyabwile's art is brilliant. It has a plethora of characters, yet he manages to make each one of them unique. The choice to do this in black and white is a powerful symbol of the reality of America then and now.
Dawud Anyabwile's art is brilliant. It has a plethora of characters, yet he manages to make each one of them unique. The choice to do this in black and white is a powerful symbol of the reality of America then and now.
