Cybils 2020 & Poetry Part 1

The Poetry category for the 2020 Cybils Awards is on hiatus. This was due to the pandemic and the possible lack of judges and access to the books. It made me very sad as I was the Poetry Category Chair in 2018 and 2019, but I understand and am very hopeful that the Poetry category will return in 2021. 

I wanted to mention the books that would have been eligible if the category was not on hiatus. These are collections (single author or anthology) and verse novels for children and teens. They were published between October 16, 2019 and October 15, 2020. This first post will list the titles for children in kindergarten through sixth grade. Link are to my reviews. 

Collections for Kindergarten

• Lift As You Climb: The Story of Ella Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell
• No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History edited by Lindsay H. Metcalf, Keila V. Dawson, and Jeanette Bradley
• Just Like Me by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
• In the Woods by David Elliott
• Whoo-Ku Haiku: A Great Horned Owl Story by Maria Gianferrari
• After Dark: Poems about Nocturnal Animals by David L. Harrison
• The B on Your Thumb: 60 Poems to Boost Reading and Spelling by Colette Hiller
• Construction People selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
• Night Wishes selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
• A Girl like Me by Angela Johnson
• Nine: A Book of Nonet Poems by Irene Latham
• Voices of Justice: Poems about People Working for a Better World by George Ella Lyon
• All Welcome Here by James Preller
• Follow the Recipe: Poems about Imagination, Celebration,and Cake by Marilyn Singer
• Thanksgiving, Here I Come! by D. J. Steinberg
• Leave a Message in the Sand: Poems about Giraffes, Bongos, and Other Creatures with Hooves by Bibi Dumon Tak
• Write! Write! Write! by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
• Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford
• R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul Carole Boston Weatherford

 Collections for Grades 1-2

• The Superlative A. Lincoln by Eileen Meyer
• Catch the Sky: Playful Poems on the Air We Share by Robert Heidbreder
• Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade
• Common Critters: The Wildlife in Your Neighborhood by Pat Brisson

 

Collections for Grades 2-3

• Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne
• Tag Your Dreams: Poems of Play and Persistence by Jacqueline Jules
• This Poem Is a Nest by Irene Latham
• A Hatful of Dragons: And 13.8 Billion Other Funny Poems by Vikram Madan
• A Portrait in Poems: The Storied Life of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas by Evie Robillard
• A World Full of Poems selected by Sylvia M. Vardell

 

Collections for Grades 3-4

• I Remember: Poems and Pictures of Heritage compiled byLee Bennett Hopkins
• Amphibian Acrobats by Leslie Bulion
• Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters

 

Collections for Grades 4-6

• Cast Away: Poems of Our Time by Naomi Shihab Nye
• Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye

Verse Novels for Elementary (Grades 2-3)

• Blue Daisy by Helen Frost

 

Verse Novels for Elementary (Grades 3-4)

• Wishes, Dares and How to Stand Up to a Bully by Darlene Beck-Jacobson
• Love, Love by Victoria Chang
• When You Know What I Know by Sonja Solter
• I Wish by Toon Tellegen

 

Verse Novels for Middle Grade (Grades 4-6)

• Grasping Mysteries: Girls Who Loved Math by Jeannine Atkins
• The Canyon’s Edge by Dusti Bowling
• Beyond Me by Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu
• The Places We Sleep by Caroline Brooks DuBois
• All He Knew by Helen Frost
• Closer to Nowhere by Ellen Hopkins
• On the Horizon by Lois Lowry
• The Land of Cranes by Aida Salazar