Cybils Reading Challenge Update

We’ve been enjoying these two finalists in the CYBILs Early Reader category:

Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl by Tedd Arnold

We’ve been big Tedd Arnold fans ever since Green Wilma. This one is wacky and fun, and just a little gross.

We Are in a Book! by Mo Willems

An instant Rilla/Wonderboy favorite. They have adored every single one of the Elephant & Piggie books & this one—a Geisel Honor book, as announced yesterday—is no exception. Our first time through, I loved the way Rilla gasped and cried out, “They know???” when Elephant realized he was in a book and we were reading it.

Of course this book generates an even more earnest “Again please, Mommy!” than the rest of the Elephant and Piggie series—which is saying a lot—because when you get to the end, Elephant begs you to go back to the beginning. As I remarked on Twitter, this may well be the book that tips Rilla over the edge into reading, because she is determined to read all of Piggie’s lines herself.

(Bet I’d read it six times before I realized that what Piggie is thanking us for in the front of the book is starting over.)

My running Cybils Shortlist Reading Challenge tally: 12 of 76