School Library Journal's Battle of the Kids' Books

  Drawing from Memory by Allen Say Scholastic Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet Candlewick Judged by Ron Koertge

Pen vs. Brush

I drop two books on the table in the Turf Club. No big surprise. Bobby and I are always bringing things to read. We’re at the races four days a week, but we’re not degenerate gamblers. Sometimes an hour goes by before there’s something worth betting.

 Sammy, another regular, picks the books up. Weighs them. The cover of Mal Peet’s Life: An Exploded Diagram features a lethal-looking rocket. On Allen’s Say’s Drawing from Memory, a dreamy boy in a blue sweater and blue socks appears to be flying.

“What’s the deal?” Sam asks.

“I have to decide between them,” I tell him. “It’s like a match race.”

“Doesn’t seem fair. One of them is thin like a pizza; the other’s fat like a sandwich.”

“Mal Peet’s book starts during WWII and goes to 2001. That’s more like a five-course meal.”

“And the other one?”

“Allen Say’s life in 62 pages.”

Sam flips through Drawing from Memory. “It’s got pictures,” he says. “Has the other one got pictures?”

I shake my head.

Sam says, “Doesn’t sound fair to me.”

“They’re both really good.”

Sammy grunts. “So, do you like anybody in the first race?”

Just then Bob shows up. He drops his copy of Daily Racing Form, picks up Life: An Exploded Diagram and flips through it. “Bold historical sweep, epic in scale with keen insight …

» Continue Reading: Round 3, Match 2: Drawing from Memory vs Life: An Exploded Diagram

  Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys Philomel/Penguin Chime by Franny Billingsley Dial/Penguin Judged by Maggie Stiefvater

When I first agreed to be a judge for this, I thought it would be straightforward, but just in case, I immediately read up on previous battles. Strangely, many of the judges said things like “this was harder than I expected” or “unexpectedly complicated!” But the idea seemed simple. You read two books, and you like one of them better. You explain your thoughts in a coherent way, and then you retreat to your kitchen to make cookie dough.

But then it was my turn. And it turned out that I had read both of the about-to-battle books. I know that you’re thinking, yahtzee! Her job’s already done! Only it wasn’t. Because even though I’d read both of them (Between Shades of Gray on a plane from Chicago to Boston, and Chime while sitting on my sofa with a runny nose), I hadn’t been in a judging mindset when I did. I was just doing what readers do. You know. Reading. Moreover, my reading environment could have biased my feelings toward them. Everyone knows that having a runny nose is better than sitting in the middle seat of an airplane next to a man who’s just had tacos before take off. HOW COULD I TRUST MY PREVIOUS JUDGMENT? The simple answer: I couldn’t. So I read them again.

I picked Chime to read first, for reasons I’ll explain later. It’s a …

» Continue Reading: Round 3, Match 1: Between Shades of Gray vs. Chime

  Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet Candlewick Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick Scholastic Judged by Chris Lynch

School Library Journal, being the efficient operation that it is, had all four of the books from the previous round in this bracket sent to me before I got started. All four were still in play, and they want the judges to be able to get right out of the blocks when the time comes. My first reaction when all four had arrived was:

My goodness, there’s a lot of talent in the room.

Shortly thereafter, though, I got the word that two of the titles had been eliminated and I didn’t need to feel quite as intimidated and overwhelmed. My new feeling was:

My goodness, there’s a lot of talent in the room.

The two titles I had to judge were Brian Selznick’s WONDERSTRUCK and Mal Peet’s LIFE: AN EXPLODED DIAGRAM.

WONDERSTRUCK was the first one to emerge from the first round, and so we’ll start there. My lovely missus, who is an artist, checked out what I was up to, examining Selznick’s work in particular. We have a running gag in my house about being jealous of creative artists who are gifted with both lavish and varied talents. She spent a bit of time with both the text and the artwork of WONDERSTRUCK.

“So, you gonna hate him?” she says. “Well, I’m gonna try,” I says.

Happy to report that I failed miserably in this attempt. Combining two …

» Continue Reading: Round 2, Match 4: Life: An Exploded Diagram vs Wonderstruck

  Drawing from Memory by Allen Say Scholastic Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai HarperCollins Judged by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Memory & Resilience: Inside Out & Back Again and Drawing from Memory

Oh, my! What a terrific, imaginative battle! Both books completely captivated me—evoking foreign landscapes, traumatic wars, immigration, and the extraordinary resilience of youth. With such similarities between Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai and Drawing from Memory by Allen Say, I simply wanted to throw my hands up and declare a “truce.”

And, yet, Inside Out & Back Again and Drawing from Memory, both by award-winning authors, are so distinctively different in point of view, tone, and narrative approach, that I felt awe. Two champions battling with finesse!

Both tales are rooted in biography. Lai fictionalizes her childhood. Say creates a visual and literary memoir.

Sifting through personal experience to create art is never easy. The possible pitfalls are many: emotional indulgence, inability to empathize with perspectives beyond the central character, and, most importantly, the failure to elevate memories to art, imbued with human truths for a new generation. Both authors brilliantly outflank these problems.

Inside Out & Back Again tells the story of Hà, a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl, who flees with her family during the fall of Saigon to foreign Alabama. “No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama,” says Hà. Through layered, complex characterization, Lai breathes …

» Continue Reading: Round 2, Match 3: Drawing from Memory vs Inside Out and Back Again

  Chime by Franny Billingsley Dial Books Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor Little, Brown Judged by E. Lockhart

There is a romantic fantasy common to both adult and YA fiction in which a man who is impossibly beautiful, wildly powerful, possibly evil, and deeply damaged is tamed by the love of a good woman. It is an unequal partnership on the surface. He has the looks and the power. Also, he really might kill her. And yet, he melts when she is near and therefore she is the one with the power, really. At least, so I am told, though honestly I don’t buy it.

It’s not a fantasy that compels me, though apparently I am pretty much alone. I like my men reasonably but not terrifyingly handsome, funny, and nurturing rather than powerful and remote. I am not interested in danger as an aphrodisiac. It quite turns me off.

But enough about my peculiarities for now.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is a terrific read that took me to several worlds I didn’t want to leave. It is full of innovatively creepy monsters. The heroine, blue-haired and covered in tattoos, is satisfyingly violent and smart-mouthed.

Karou is an art student living in Prague, eating goulash and cavorting with street artists, but her family—which is mysterious even to her—consists of a demon who trades in the teeth of the dead and the group of chimarea who work for him. Karou doesn’t understand why she, …

» Continue Reading: Round 2, Match 2: Chime vs Daughter of Smoke and Bone

  Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming Schwartz & Wade/Random House Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys Philomel/Penguin Judged by Marc Aronson

Last year Sugar Changed the World, which I co-wrote with my wife, Marina Budhos, was entered into this battle, and Adam Rex struggled to evaluate it against Jonathan Stroud’s compelling Ring of Solomon, a fine fantasy novel (it won). As Adam wrote, narrative nonfiction and fantasy were a perfect case of apples and oranges. I face a similar though more tangled issue this year: Between Shades of Gray is a novel, based on considerable research, which adds an important and tragic true story to the shelves of literature for young readers. Its power comes from bringing to light what has too long been hidden: Stalin’s use of the gulag to crush the artistic and intellectual flower of Lithuania. Amelia Lost makes use of an innovative narrative structure more conventionally employed in fiction to retell the familiar story of the adventurous life and mysterious disappearance of Amelia Earhart.

We have fiction whose largest claim is nonfiction, and nonfiction whose power comes from its resemblance to fiction. I feel like a hapless kid in dance class, whose feet keep getting tangled up. I wish the contest offered “best in show” prizes within a genre—then I could just honor these two fine books for what they have accomplished, rather than having to invent some way to compare them.

Serving on the National Book Award jury last year was …

» Continue Reading: Round 2, Match 1: Amelia Lost vs Between Shades of Gray

Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt Clarion/HMH Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick Scholastic Judged by Jeff Kinney

Oh, the delicious irony. A guy who draws stick-figure cartoons gets to judge which book is better on its literary merits… the one written by the Caldecott-winning author or the one written by the two-time Newbery Honor winner. Perhaps the meek shall inherit the earth after all.

First, I must confess that when I received my copies of Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick, and Okay for Now, by Gary D. Schmidt, I had to re-acquaint myself with the notion of a physical book. I consume plenty of books… I just don’t read any. Because I do my cartoon drawings at night during what would otherwise be prime reading time, if I want to enjoy a book, I have to put on a pair of headphones and multitask. Every novel I’ve purchased over the past five years has been an audiobook, so all of my “reading” comes courtesy of my ears, not my eyes.

So it really was exciting to unwrap these two great paper tomes, throw on a pair of reading glasses, sit down in a comfortable chair, and dig in.

I started with Okay for Now (and at the time, I didn’t realize it was available as an audiobook, having foolishly searched for “O.K. for Now” on iTunes) because it looked less intimidating than Selznick’s massive novel. Cracking Schmidt’s book and reading the first page, I felt disoriented… without having someone reading to me, …

» Continue Reading: Round 1, Match 8: Okay for Now vs Wonderstruck

Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet Candlewick A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness Candlewick Judged by Lauren Myracle

Oh, Lordy. When I was approached about being a judge for this year’s Battle of the Kids’ Books, I said “Sure! Sounds fun!” And the reading part—hell yeah, tons of fun. Although I cried while I read the books I was assigned, too. That’s okay. I actually love it when a book makes me cry. And for the record? Both of these babies did.

When it came to selecting a winner, however… ag. I have, of late, come to not like the word “winner” all that much, and along with many author friends, I’ve decided that awards suck (unless you’re the winner, that is). But! A woman is only as good as her word, and I did indeed say I’d pick a winner. So—in the spirit of loving critical dialogue, and with a HUGE dose of “omigosh, both of these books blew me away”—I’ll tell you which book I chose.

In a moment.

The first of the two books I read was A Monster Calls. I flipped it open eagerly, already salivating, because I’d previously had the pleasure of reading Patrick’s Chaos Walking trilogy. Holy Flaming Hot Chee*to, I adore those books, in large part due to their inventiveness, their language, their edge-of-the-seat-ness. I expected to be delighted by those same elements in Monster, and I was! Wh-hoo! Conor, who is dealing (or not) with the imminent death of his mother, …

» Continue Reading: Round 1, Match 7: Life: An Exploded Diagram vs A Monster Calls

Heart and Soul by Kadir Nelson Balzer & Bray Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai HarperCollins Judged by Sarah Weeks

I like to think of myself as a nice person. True, I sometimes fantasize about throwing rotten fruit at the children from the Montessori school across the street who use my neighbor’s backyard as their playground from one o’clock to three o’clock every weekday afternoon. “I’m trying to write children’s books up here!” I want to scream at them from my window as they frolic and cavort below. “Shut up!” But with that one glaring exception, I can honestly say I am not a person who likes confrontation or conflict and I am loathe to offend or hurt anyone’s feelings. So when I was asked if I would like to participate in SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books, I was both flattered and horrified. Flattered to be included in a list of people described as “some of the top authors in the kids’ book world” and horrified at the notion of having to say anything negative about a colleague’s work.

By the time the books arrived I had made peace with myself. My job would not be to decide which book was better than the other, but rather which one I liked better. Whether a person likes something or not is completely subjective. For instance, I happen to like jujubes more than chocolate. This doesn’t mean I don’t like chocolate, it just means that …

» Continue Reading: Round 1, Match 6: Heart and Soul vs Inside Out and Back Again

  Drawing from Memory by Allen Say Scholastic The Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami Atheneum/S&S Judged by Barbara O’Connor

First up: The Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami.

This book tricked me. I looked at the cover. I read the title (which for some reason I have a hard time remembering). I read the flap copy. I perused the first few paragraphs. I glanced at some of the illustrations. And then I formed an opinion based on first impressions. This was going to be light, humorous, simply-plotted, realistic fiction.

I hunkered into my overstuffed chair, propped up my slipper-clad feet, and settled into Dini’s world. From the get-go, I found the subject fascinating: Bollywood films. Dini and her best friend, Maddie, are obsessed with them, and, in particular, the Indian Bollywood star, Dolly Singh. I loved reading about fillums and filmi and Filmi Kumpnee Magazine, all so foreign to me.

So, I’m reading along. La la la. Then I get to Chapter Four.

Bam!

The point of view changed to omniscient. (I think that’s what it is. Perhaps one of those smart judges from previous years can jump in here.) This shift in point of view was totally unexpected.

But it wasn’t just the point of view that changed. There was an almost radical shift in tone and mood, from light and humorous to lyrical and serious-toned. It made me sit up and take …

» Continue Reading: Round 1, Match 5: Drawing from Memory vs The Grand Plan to Fix Everything

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor Little, Brown Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos FSG/Macmillan Judged by Sara Zarr

When I found out the titles I’d be judging for the Battle, I tried to guess which I’d wind up choosing—Laini Taylor’s highly-acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, or Newbery winner Dead End in Norvelt, from Jack Gantos. Handicapping them in the context of my biases and habits as a reader put them neck-and-neck. I’m a fan of contemporary realism for older young adults, and literary fiction for younger old adults. Rarely-to-never do I voluntarily pick up the fantastical or paranormal romancey novels that currently dominate the YA landscape, and middle-grade fiction with boy appeal is barely on my radar. So, as different as their books are from each other, Taylor and Gantos started out on a more or less level playing field.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone arrived first, and I quickly saw why it’s been so well-reviewed. It’s a book for lovers of lush language and exotic locales, a velvet sofa of a book, something you sink into. Karou is a compelling heroine and the stakes for her story are high. As briefly as possible and leaving a whole lot out: imagine you are a beautiful human orphan, and your adopted daddy is a creature with furry haunches, claw-feet, and alligator eyes. In exchange for taking you in and giving you a cozy cot in the back room of his lair, you have …

» Continue Reading: Round 1, Match 4: Daughter of Smoke and Bone vs Dead End in Norvelt

The Cheshire Cheese Cat by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright Peachtree Chime by Franny Billingsley Dial Books Judged by Sy Montgomery

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright. Drawings by Barry Moser

Aficionados of Dickens will be delighted. But not all children are fans (yet) of the great novelist. And frankly, Dickens wasn’t what drew me to the book, either. I loved this book for the same reason kids will: I’m a big fan of cats and of mice.

There are plenty of tales out there told by talking animals, some of them our greatest classics. But unfortunately (like too many films about animals), these days, too often the critters are little more than just furry people–and therefore no more interesting than a book about mere humans. Not so this book. Pip, a tiny mouse who repeatedly cheats death, grooms himself exactly like a real mouse. Skilley, the tomcat hero of the book, really behaves, most of the time, just like a cat. And if you think the book’s premise is impossible—that no cat in his right mind can resist hunting and eating a mouse—think again. Not all cats hunt rodents. Some (unfortunately for our feathered wildlife) specialize in birds. Skilley just happens to specialize in…cheese.

Which is what brings him to Ye Old Cheshire Cheese, a popular London inn frequented by, among other characters, Charles Dickens. (who, we learn from excerpts from his diary, is having a …

» Continue Reading: Round 1, Match 3: The Cheshire Cheese Cat vs. Chime

  Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys Philomel/Penguin Bootleg by Karen Blumenthall Flash Point/Macmillan Judged by Gayle Forman

When I hear the word “historical” in the vicinity of the word “book,” especially when we are talking about a young-person’s book, I tend to react like your average 12-year-old reluctant reader: eye-rolling, yawning, maybe some foot-stomping. I recognize that this reflex is unfair. Many historical YA books—fiction and nonfiction—are gripping and moving. (Waves to Charles and Emma, Marching for Freedom). But I’ve read enough that are wheat germ—healthy, chock full of good intention, flavorless—to bring out my inner 12-year-old.

Thankfully, my two selections, two very different kinds of historical books—Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition by Karen Blumenthal and Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys—had nary a hint of wheat germ.

Let’s start with the booze. I must admit, I was skeptical about Bootleg. A book about Prohibition? Would teens care? But then I realized that when you’re a kid, everything is prohibited, and so much of Blumenthal’s lively and often-funny book is about how everyday folk skirted Prohibition’s strictures and how hifalutin folk didn’t have to (during the height of Prohibition, upstairs at the White House was lousy with whiskey). Rule-breaking and hypocrisy? A glossary that includes terms like blind pig? What’s not to love?

Bootleg cleverly chronicles the buildup and fallout from Prohibition by focusing on specific characters. And lordy, what characters they are. We meet Carrie Nation, the Temperance …

» Continue Reading: Round 1, Match 2: Between Shades of Gray vs. Bootleg

Amelia Lost by Candace Fleming Random House Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol First Second Judged by Matt Phelan

Going strictly alphabetical is a pretty good idea for BoB and creates interesting contests. As luck would have it, I have more than a passing interest in both comics and around-the-world adventurers (with a particular fondness for a few who succeeded).

Let’s start with a similarity. We have here the two most striking covers of the year.  They don’t beg, “Read me!,” they coolly inform you that, “Yes, you do want to read me. Now.” Both covers consist of a grayed image and red lettering. Anya’s Ghost is all swirls and curves with that great shape of the hair leaving room for the title. Amelia Lost has lines as straight as a plane’s wingspan and there, looking heroic and cooler than anyone you know, is Amelia in her leather flight suit. Kudos to Vera Brosgol and Colleen AF Venable for designing Anya and Rachael Cole for designing Amelia. So far, it’s a draw.

Anya’s Ghost is the first graphic novel by Vera Brosgol. Her command of the comics’ medium is startling. There is not a moment in the book where you feel that the storytelling is perhaps off-track or the images are not communicating. Anya’s Ghost moves with confidence and clarity, deftly mixing fantasy with teen reality and is, in turns, very funny and seriously menacing. She manages that tricky balancing act thanks in large part to her …

» Continue Reading: Round 1, Match 1: Amelia Lost vs. Anya’s Ghost