#CYBILS2024 Finalists Have Been Announced!
A brief mini-post about the 2024 CYBILS Awards finalists + "the ones that got away" books
Prologue
Hi y’all! Happy New Year!
I hope this holiday season and the first few days of 2025 were restful and that you were able to spend time doing the things you love.
This isn’t going to be as much of a full post (I’ll be back on Tuesday with that), but I just wanted to let you all know that the finalists for the 2024 CYBILS Awards were announced this past Wednesday.
As some of you may know, I was a Round 1 panelist in the Graphic Novels category for this year’s awards and the whole process of selecting 14 finalists between two subcategories has been act of love that I’m so grateful to be part of. Having read all 14 of the Graphic Novels finalists, I can assure that the panel and myself made the best decisions towards what we believe truly represented the best in Elementary/Middle Grade1 and Young Adult graphic novels in 2024.
Now, if you want to find out who these 14 finalists are in Graphic Novels as well as learn more about the other CYBILS Awards finalists, I’m linking the CYBILS Awards website which will take you directly to the list of finalists in each of the award categories.
The Ones That Got Away
Of course, there were some books that I loved among the 100+ nominees in graphic novels that weren’t selected as finalists for this year’s CYBILS Awards and I wanted to take a little bit of time to share with you these awesome graphic novels that are subsequently “the ones that got away”.
EMG Graphic Novels
Camp Prodigy by Caroline Palmer
During the course of camp, two non-binary kids strike up a friendship over their love of the viola while also learning how to step out on their own and how to live with anxiety.
There were so many great thematic elements in this book and Palmer’s illustrations really helped bring those elements as well as the story to life. Additionally, both of our main characters, Tate and Eli, were really well-developed and there was a nice balance between them and the other cast of campers in the book.
Next Stop by Debbie Fong
While the cover might look unassuming, Debbie Fong’s Next Stop grapples with family tragedy and how to ultimately move forward towards a new normal.
Next Stop deals with a lot of dark and sensitive subjects, and I encourage folks to check out content warnings before deciding whether or not this book is for you, but the message behind this book is so necessary for kids dealing with the loss of a loved one and I felt that Fong takes a compassionate and accessible approach while addressing these tough subject matters.
Plus, if you’re fan of books that have setting as character, this book really embodies that.
YA Graphic Novels
Girlmode by Magdalene Vissagio
Girlmode was quite an interesting book, both for its look into exploring girlhood through the perspective of a recently out trans girl and for navigating the complexities of being a girl in the 21st century.
There are some dark subjects that Vissagio tackles in the book and, like I said earlier, please check out content warnings before deciding to read this book. Nevertheless, I felt that Vissagio uses these tough themes to serve the purpose they were there to do and that this book could be a really good resource for teens who need a book like Girlmode.
Indiginerds edited by Alina Pete
Indiginerds edited by Alina Pete was perhaps the only comic/graphic novel anthology nominated out of all the books nominated in graphic novels, but it is sure to leave a mark.
Spanning across various interests and walks of life, Indiginerds provides a fresh perspective of indigenous representation in YA lit and the authors featured in this book bring an authentic storytelling ability to the lives of Indigenous teens.
Navigating with You by Jeremy Whitley
With strong and positive disability representation as well as an utterly adorable YA romance, Navigating with You centers on two girls trying to find the volumes of their favorite manga that went out of print. Whitley creates the same kind of compelling characters you would in a traditional YA romance and the book being a graphic novel really works well with the story that Whitley is trying to tell in Navigating with You.
Epilogue
I hope you enjoyed today’s mini-post. Be sure to check the books I’ve listed in this article as well as the finalists for the 2024 CYBILS Awards and let me know if any of these books caught your eye.
And as always, make sure to like and subscribe for more bookish content.
Let’s Do Good With Books today and everyday!
For the sake of conciseness, all future mentions of this subcategory will referred to as EMG graphic novels.
Fantastic mini-post, Rachael! So glad you enjoyed your time as a CYBILS Awards judge. Thank you for volunteering! 100+ books in 90-ish days, in a busy time of year is a lot ... and y'all did it with aplumb.