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The Cybils: 2007 Winners

The Cybils winners have been announced and you can find the complete list of winners here. I served on the Graphic Novels judging panel and I can tell you it was not easy settling on the two winners in the Elementary/Middle Grade and Young Adult categories.

Elementary/Middle Grade:

21fv7sxv6ml_aa_sl160_ Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel
written by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
illustrated by Giovanni Rigano and Paolo Lamanna
Hyperion
The comics format proves a good match for Eoin Colfer's tale of war between fairies and an obsessed young genius, already popular around the world in novel form. The energetic, manga-influenced drawings capture the book's technologically heavy action and many magical creatures. The book's creative team uses comics techniques from character profiles to changes in lettering to lead readers through the novel's shifting points of view and sympathies. A truly over-the-top adventure.

Young Adult:

21hkbxs1dgl_aa_sl160_ The Professor's Daughter
written by Joann Sfar; illustrated by Emmanuel Guibert
First Second
In late Victorian London, the frustrated daughter of an archaeologist and the repressed son of an Egyptian pharaoh fall in love. That he's been dead for many centuries is the least of their problems. The twisting, fast-paced story that follows takes readers to many landmarks of classic English adventure tales, from the British Museum and Scotland Yard and into the private study of Queen Victoria herself. While the panel layout is the same on nearly every page, the scenes inside those boxes jump from slapstick action to tender reminiscences to deadly danger.

I felt strongly that these two represented the cream of the crop from 2007 and was very pleased to see them win. They are completely different novels, but both ridiculously fun. And thanks to all the organizers, panelists, judges, readers, authors, and illustrators who made this such a fun process to be a part of!

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