Here is my mostly-annual post about the seven fantastic books my fellow Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction Cybils panelists and I chose, narrowing down from nearly 100 nominees. As always, while I truly love the books we chose, and I do see the need to have a shorter list, there are lots of titles that I loved that got missed, so I’m including those as well.

2023 Cybils Finalists

• Conjure Island by Eden Royce
• Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom by Nina Varela – this is extra exciting because my own child nominated it!
• The Bellwoods Game by Celia Krampien
• The Demon Sword Asperides by Sarah Jean Horwitz
• The Grace of Wild Things by Heather Fawcett
• The House of the Lost on the Cape by Sachiko Kashiwaba, illustrated by Yukiko Saito, Avery Fischer Udagawa (Translator)
• The Rhythm of Time by Questlove and S. A. Cosby – my own nomination! Not as common as you might think.

2023 Cybils nominees I loved that got away

• Don’t Want to be Your Monster by Deke Moulton
• Elf Dog and Owl Head by M.T. Anderson. Illustrated by Junyi Wu.
• The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers. Illustrated by Shawn Harris.
• Just a Pinch of Magic by Alechia Dow
• The Kingdom over the Sea by Zohra Nabi
• The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass
• Speculation by Nisi Shawl
• Three Tasks for a Dragon by Eoin Colfer. Illustrated by P.J. Lynch.

If by some chance all of these are new enough that they’re all checked out at your library, you can also take a look at my Ones that Got Away posts from previous years: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2018 , 2017, and 2015.