The Battle Commander and the Commentator read furiously throughout 2011, reread, looked at what others were admiring, read more, argued, reread, agreed, disagreed, read some more, and by early December (in order to give time for our SLJ man-behind-the-curtain to begin recruiting judges) came up with our contenders. Then we had to keep it a secret from all of you for weeks and weeks! So here we are mighty chuffed (using last year’s winner’s lovely term) at last to be announcing this year’s list. (The brackets can be viewed here with a downloadable version available here.)
AMELIA LOST by Candace Fleming
ANYA’S GHOST by Vera Brosgol
BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY by Ruta Sepetys
BOOTLEG by Karen Blumenthal
THE CHESHIRE CHEESE CAT by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright
CHIME by Franny Billingsley
DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE by Laini Taylor
DEAD END IN NORVELT by Jack Gantos
DRAWING FROM MEMORY by Allen Say
THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING by Uma Krishnaswami
HEART AND SOUL by Kadir Nelson
INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN by Thanhha Lai
LIFE: AN EXPLODED DIAGRAM by Mal Peet
A MONSTER CALLS by Patrick Ness
OKAY FOR NOW by Gary Schmidt
WONDERSTRUCK by Brian Selznick
