I’ve been so proud to be a judge in the picture book category for the Cybils, and I’m thrilled to announce that we have a winner: Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell! One of my fellow judges, Eliza Brown, eloquently put into words the sentiments of us all: “Me…Jane is a touching glimpse into the life of a young Jane Goodall as a curious girl with a love of nature, and books, and a stuffed chimpanzee named Jubilee. A unique combination of dreamy watercolor vignettes and nature-inspired vintage engravings complement a simple and evocative text. Every element of the book’s design, from its album-like cover and heavy yellowed pages to the inclusion of photographs and Goodall’s own childhood drawings, helps create a picture book that feels like a relative’s cherished scrapbook. Readers of all ages will take inspiration from a young girl who so fully follows her dreams.”
I read Me…Jane to a Brownie troop who came in for a storytime about “girl power”. I loved how Me…Jane showed excerpts from Jane Goodall’s actual journals she kept as a child, full of drawings, puzzles, and interesting facts about nature. I showed the girls that journaling is a great way to preserve important ideas and information as well as a way to record thoughts and feelings. I gave each of the girls a notebook and art supplies. We gathered a bunch of nonfiction books we found interesting, and wrote and drew in our journals ideas we wanted to remember. I told them to save these journals so when they’re grown up, they can look back and see how, like Jane, the passions of their youth inspire the lives they’ll lead as adults.
For the past six years the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (Cybils) have been given by bloggers to the best children’s and young adult books of the year. Our list of fiction picture books featured such good titles, I found the job of judging a very humbling one. Hoots and hollers go out to all our finalists:
I Had a Favorite Dress written by Boni Ashburn and illustrated by Julie Denos
I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
The Princess and the Pig written by Jonathan Emmett and illustrated by Poly Bernatene
Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? by written by Susan Shea and illustrated by Tom Slaughter
Press Here by Herve Tullet
Blackout by John Rocco
Guess Who Is Out of the Den?
