Maw Books » Bookish Musings & Miscellany

2010 Cybils Awards Winners!

Natasha Maw — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 07:44:58 +0000

The 2010 Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards, or better known as the Cybils, were announced today!

Check out the winners across nine different categories!

You may recall that I served as a first round panelist on the Fiction Picture Book category and was eager to find out which book from the shortlist the second round judges picked for the win. (Yes. I sat at my computer waiting for the strike of midnight refreshing the page every few seconds.) Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein!

I was also heartened to see one of my initial nominations, Yummy by G. Neri and illustrated by Randy duBurke, take the win in the Young Adult Graphic Novel category. What an amazing book.

Split by Swati Avasthi won the Young Adult Fiction category and I must agree that it’s particularly deserving.

Now off to add the rest of the Cybils winners to my TBR list! Do check the award winners as well as the amazing finalists. I’m partial to the Fiction Picture Book Finalists! I never posted anything here on the blog when the Caldecott Awards were announced. But I was beyond ecstatic with the A Sick Day for Amos McGee win. Love, love, love.

I know how difficult it is to pick winners in an awards selection like this and so a huge shout out to the Cybils organizers, panelists and judges. Job well done!

What do you think of the winners? Any surprises for you?

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When I’m Not Reading . . .

Natasha Maw — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 07:09:12 +0000

. . . I am not home.

First, there was Christmas spent in California at my in-laws home. We had a great time. Erica Perl, author of Chicken Butt!, sent my boys a talking chicken. They loved it so much that they stole my camera to take many photos of it.

I also think we watched this show probably about twenty times:

After our Christmas vacation, we promptly set off for the funeral of my husband’s grandfather. And at the age of 92, he had lived a life that we all were proud of. My fondest memory of Grandpa is his marrying me and my husband. I will always remember how proud I was that he was able to do that for us.

My husband’s family is from Hawaii and the best part about attending the funeral was seeing Grandma, Aunties, Uncles, cousins, and new babies that we haven’t seen in years in addition to more time with Taylor’s parents and sisters. Because we don’t often get the chance to travel to Hawaii, we made the most of it and stayed for 11 days. We also ate out every meal. Mmmm . . . yummy.

The wonderful sunny break from our Utah winter weather made me want to never come home.

And people, I seriously have the cutest kids ever.

See what I’m talking about?

Sad to leave Hawaii and on our way to the airport, we realized that we left this at Grandma’s house and my oldest boy cried:

I think I have read a total of about 20 pages so far into January. But honestly? Who cares!

Now that I am back home to an empty fridge I have my sights on the grocery store to pick up Mexican food and snacks for tomorrow’s Bloggiesta. Can you believe it’s tomorrow? Must make up for all of my time offline and get this fiesta started!

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Merry Christmas!

Natasha Maw — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 09:30:20 +0000

The gift of love. The gift of peace. The gift of happiness. The gift of good reading. May all these be yours this holiday season and the entire new year.

Wishing you a very merry Christmas from my family to yours!

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Literary Themed Christmas Trees

Natasha Maw — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 01:36:23 +0000

Ahh the Festival of Trees! Our favorite time of the year!! Here in Salt Lake City, the Festival of Trees, is an annual event where individuals, groups, and organizations decorate and donate Christmas trees, wreaths, centerpieces, quilts, gingerbread houses and gift items. Everything is auctioned off and every single penny (I literally mean every single penny – everything is done on a volunteer basis) goes to the Primary Children’s Medical Center.

It is their largest fundraiser and raises millions of dollars. Between 70,000 and 80,000 people attend the festival each year and there are hundred of trees. Many of the trees are donated in somebody’s name or by friends and family of children who have either passed or have received compassionate care at the hospital. Many of the stories and photos of the children will make you cry.

To say that I adore this fundraiser is an understatement. It is simply amazing!! Each year, I have taken special notice of the literary themed Christmas trees so I can share them with you here.

Anne of Green Gables themed Christmas tree:

There is always a Harry Potter inspired tree:

And while there is a Twilight inspired Christmas tree every year, this year there was not one, not two, not three, not four but five Twilight Christmas trees. Obviously, a lot of fans around here.

Three Wizard of Oz trees:

Peanuts tree:

Dr. Suess is always a popular tree:

This Dr. Suess tree is titled, “Oh, The Places You’ll Go:”

This tree was gorgeous! Complete with bookish quotes, a fireplace underneath, and all kinds of wrapped books:

Goodnight, Moon:

The Jungle Book:

Lot’s of snowmen books under this snowman tree:

The name of this tree was A Critter’s Christmas and it had a lot of bug type books included:

Winnie the Pooh is another tree that we see every year:

The Secret Garden inspired Christmas tree:

A picture book Christmas tree complete with a paper mache Where the Wild Things Are. I didn’t get it in the photo but there was also a good sized bookcase full of books included.

These little elves were just too cute. And fun books too!

Christmas picture books included with this tree:

While this tree was not inspired by one particular book, it was just too adorable to pass up. Lots of princess books were under the tree.

I loved Raggedy Ann and Andy when I was little:

The books that were with this little tiny tree were almost as big as the tree which was titled, A Christmas Story:

Only one Nightmare Before Christmas tree this year. My little boy said this theme was what he would be watching for.

A Jane Austen Christmas:

Diary of a Wimpy Kid:

This little tree was set up on a gorgeous Lord of the Rings chess set:

And while these last few may not particularly be literary inspired, they get honorable mentions here because they were so creative. Although, Cookie Monster shows up in a lot of books though right?

And this surfing Santa was made with four leaning Christmas trees:

And yes, these are tires:

And two of my boys favorite trees that they couldn’t get enough of:

Did you have a favorite?! Tell me which one you loved the most. And if you didn’t get your fill, check out year’s past for more.

Today’s post is day 6 of the 2010 Virtual Advent Tour – where every day bloggers are sharing their thoughts about Christmas. Do follow everybody’s posts!

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When I’m Not Reading . . .

Natasha Maw — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:41:27 +0000

. . . I am obviously not blogging. Breaks are good even when they are unannounced and no reasons nor apologies given. That blogging rule that goes: “you should always post regularly and consistently?” So not me this past month.

We’ve had a great fall and with all the snow on the ground we are well into winter around here.

We had pho (our favorite!) on Thanksgiving day.

Not to worry though, we did have the traditional dinner later that weekend with 3 of my 5 siblings, my in-laws, my parents, and a myriad of nieces and nephews.

And while it was outside doing this:

We stayed inside and put up our Christmas tree:

(Notice our box of holiday picture books underneath?)

We have also been hosting out of state family for the past two weeks. It’s been a blast!

I might add though, that I have in fact also been doing a lot of reading, particularly picture books for the Cybils. Thus far 232 books read out of 264. So. Much. Fun.

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The Big Halloween Costume Reveal

Natasha Maw — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 20:24:48 +0000

Happy Halloween!

If your Halloween was anything like our Halloween then you have been BUSY BUSY with all kinds of fun, fall activities and running around from one fantastic event to the next. And if it’s anything like ours than you also go all out on costumes. My husband has created quite the reputation for himself and he, again, did not disappoint with both his and the boys’ costumes. And might I add that the only thing I had to do for my costume was put it on? Yep, Taylor also takes care of everything for me as well.

Our boys:

My own Madhatter:

And the whole family:

Now that the costumes are done and Halloween festivities have come to a close, what are we going to do with our nights now?

We had a great Halloween this year. You?

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When I’m Not Reading . . .

Natasha Maw — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 06:05:58 +0000

. . . we had our family photos professionally taken for the FIRST TIME (I know kind of crazy considering my BFA is in photography)!

Aren’t they gorgeous? I’m so excited!

If you are in Utah check out Suzette Anderson Photography. She did a great job with our little family.

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The Current State of My Current Read

Natasha Maw — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:58:46 +0000

Last night I began to read Mr. Monster by Dan Wells again, the sequel to I Am Not A Serial Killer. I was so excited for this book. I could not put I Am Not A Serial Killer down. My husband ordered the sequel from England as it wasn’t released here yet (it is now! just came out this week).

When it arrived I had to wait for Taylor to read it first. And when it was my turn I was very excited. But then soon after starting, I had to take an extended break.

This happened:

Yes. I waterlogged the entire book. But it’s dry now and I’m hoping it won’t fall apart on me before I finish! And as my husband rarely buys books for himself, he’s not taking it easy on me for ruining his book.

This reminds me of the other book that I ruined in the exact same way. When am I going to learn?

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When I’m Not Reading . . .

Natasha Maw — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 06:38:17 +0000

. . . we have been having a busy month.

It all began with our little guy breaking his collarbone.

Being wrapped up in a sling though didn’t slow him down one bit as you can see from his shopping trip above.

Our other little guy got a new job:

We then ran up to this little place:

Where we met people like this:

And Taylor ate a buffalo burger

I was thrilled that I didn’t have to use these accommodations:

Then we visited one of my most favorite places, the gardens:

And then I suddenly found myself with two hours three days a week to myself!

You also might remember this happening:

Perhaps this one-week-old baby cow is a bit cuter:

And Taylor ate a turkey leg.

After all of that, we decided a train ride was in order.

Somehow the house managed to get cleaned which is always a good thing.

We decided that this would be an excellent decorating choice:

And I fumbled through my very first cake decorating attempt:

But it was well worth it to see my little boy anticipate and LOVE his very first birthday party.

And I never posted a photo of this little adventure:

Certainly a lot more happening around here than just reading!

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New Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Trailer – Amazing!

Natasha Maw — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 04:37:37 +0000

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

Have you seen this new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trailer?

Can. Not. Wait.

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