School Library Journal's Battle of the Kids' Books

After two consecutive years of blowouts, this year was much more competitive. That’s not to say OKAY FOR NOW didn’t jump out to a healthy lead and maintain it throughout, but that healthy lead was often a single digit number.  CHIME and DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE trailed early, then CHIME pulled away for a clear second place until an eleventh hour push by WONDERSTRUCK.  Meanwhile, A MONSTER CALLS joined DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE in that third tier. Undead winner OKAY FOR NOW will make lots of people happy and it should be a real threat to win the whole thing.  It’s also the only viable juvenile option in the final round as both BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY and LIFE: AN EXPLODED DIAGRAM are more YA.

– Commentator Jonathan Hunt

AND NOW

The two official Kid Commentators want to share with everyone what THEY think should win this year’s top BoB Prize. Do you agree with their picks?

Okay For Now, Between Shades of Gray, and Life: An Exploded Diagram. Three fantastic novels have all conquered their competitors, survived in a rather brutal battle, and have made it to the final round of the 2012 Battle of the Kids’ Books. Which for any book, picture or prose, is the highest honor one could be awarded. These three books will fight in the ultimate brawl of the battle until one book alone departs from the battle victorious. This …

» Continue Reading: Winner of the 2012 Undead Poll and Kid Commentator Picks!

A new addition to the 2012 BoB: we have two official Kid Commentators who will follow and comment on the Matches along with our veteran commentator Jonathan Hunt.  We are so pleased to be able to gain some insights directly from the young readers for whom these books are intended.

Here’s Official Kid Commentator Number One: RGN, who will introduce himself to you all:

Why I follow BoB

Last year, I was blessed by learning about BoB. I love reading and writing, so I was really excited when I followed it as part of a “Book Bloggers” club after school. What started out as a curiosity soon became more of an obsession (soon to be annual); I avidly rooted for my favorite books and became more involved in the competition.

In February, I was happily surprised when I realized it was Battle of the Books time. I look forward to commenting and viewing the contest. May the best book win!

– Official Kid Commentator, RGN.

RGN is a seventh grader in NYC who loves reading and writing – as well as history, which features in some of the BoB books!

Since our list is always due to School Library Journal by December 1st of the preceding year, we never know how it will match up with the ALSC/YALSA awards announced in late January.  As I mentioned in my last post, we haven’t always included the National Book Award and the Newbery Medal and Honor books, but even when we have, they’ve often had a rough go of it here.

This year, we included the following young adult titles: BOOTLEG, CHIME, DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE, LIFE: AN EXPLODED DIAGRAM, and for the younger YAs, A MONSTER CALLS and OKAY FOR NOW.  But we didn’t cast our net wide enough to snag a single Printz book!  We did have serious conversations about several additional young adult books, namely BLINK & CAUTION, THE SCORPIO RACES, THE WATCH THAT ENDS THE NIGHT, and WHY WE BROKE UP.  So we were almost there, but not quite.

–Commentator Jonathan Hunt

AMELIA LOST by Candace Fleming . . . Four starred reviews, three best of the year lists.  One of the best nonfiction books of the year and arguably the best book not to pick up some kind of award this past year which makes me want to root for it here all the more.

ANYA’S GHOST by Vera Brosgol . . . Five starred reviews, five best of the year lists.  Not just one of the best graphic novels of the year, but one of the best young adult novels, period.  The character development of the ghost is a particular strength.

BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY by Ruta Sepetys . . . Four starred reviews, four best of the year lists, Morris Award finalist.  Lyrical writing and powerful subject combine to make this an easy choice for our list.  Break out the Kleenex!

BOOTLEG by Karen Blumenthal . . . Four starred reviews, three best of the year lists, Nonfiction Award finalist.  Blumenthal manages to distill a complex social movement into an intellectual but readable narrative full of visual and textual information.  The best young adult nonfiction book of the year.

THE CHESHIRE CHEESE CAT by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright . . . Three starred reviews, three best of the year lists, ALSC Notable Children’s Book.  An animal fantasy with literary allusions.  This was one of our favorite Newbery sleepers.  Was it one of yours?

CHIME by Franny Billingsley . . . Six starred reviews, five best of the year lists, Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book, National Book Award finalist.  A …

» Continue Reading: Why We Picked What We Did

Last year there was a curious relationship between the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Battle of the Kids’ Books. Charles and Emma, The Lost Conspiracy, Marching for Freedom, and Tales From Outer Suburbia were all finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize last year. They also happened to be the four semifinalists in Battle of the Kids’ Books—and Marching for Freedom ended up winning both.

This year three of the recently announced L.A. Times Book Prize finalists are in our field: A Conspiracy of Kings, The Ring of Solomon, and Sugar Changed the World. The latter two books meet in the first round which means that the best we might hope for is to see the winner make it to the finals to face A Conspiracy of Kings which is in the other half of the bracket. Of course, the Undead Poll only increases the chances of one of these three making it to the finals.

What about the other L.A. Times finalists? Well, I really thought that The Rise and Fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy by James Cross Giblin from last year was a shoo-in for this year’s YALSA’s Nonfiction Award shortlist, but alas, no. Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill, a verse novel of the Salem Witch Trials, featured some of the best poetry of the year, and got many starred reviews because of it, but seemed to be passed over for more impressive honors—until now. The Curse of the Wendigo, on the other hand, …

» Continue Reading: LAT and BOB

Roger asked why we run the Undead Poll before anything even gets eliminated.  It’s a very good question and the very simple answer is that we want to give our Big Kahuna judge enough time to read three books for the final decision, and since all but two of them are going to be eliminated anyway, why not run the poll now under the assumption that any book could get eliminated.

You probably want a little hint about what’s currently leading the poll.  I can say that one title has distanced itself from the pack, but I’m not sure I can describe it as a surprise—at least not to the same degree that The Frog Scientist was.  I’m tempted to say a lot more, but don’t want to give the game away.  So I’ll simply encourage you to vote if you have not already done so.

— Commentator Jonathan Hunt

If you followed the Heavy Medal blog, you’ll already know which two books are my favorites here—A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS and SUGAR CHANGED THE WORLD—and since they are in separate halves of the bracket it’s entirely possible for them to meet in the finals! But I hate the fact that SUGAR CHANGED THE WORLD and THE RING OF SOLOMON meet in the first round, making that the worst first round pairing of the whole tournament, followed closely by AS EASY AS FALLING OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH and THE CARDTURNER.

The Newbery Medal winner has been upset in the first round the past couple years, and while we don’t have MOON OVER MANIFEST in the tournament, I’m very curious to see how ONE CRAZY SUMMER, our lone Newbery book, will fare. I think it could easily win the Undead Poll; it also goes up against a completely different kind of book in the first round, THE ODYSSEY, making me think we are once again at the mercy of the judge’s whim. I’m also very curious to see how the other graphic novel, HEREVILLE, will hold up against KEEPER.

But back to the Newbery Medal winner for a moment since there was a bit of discussion in the comments recently about its absence here. I do agree with Roxanne and Monica that, with it being so hard to narrow our choices down to just sixteen titles, it would be very difficult to reserve spots for certain books. I also …

» Continue Reading: Commentator Jonathan Has Some Questions

The most interesting thing to me about this year’s crop of Battle of the Kids’ Books contenders is how there is virtually no overlap with ALA’s Youth Media Awards.  ONE CRAZY SUMMER is the most obvious exception: with a Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King Award, not to mention a National Book Award nomination and the Scott O’Dell Award, it’s the most decorated book of the year at this point (like CLAUDETTE COLVIN was last year).  Also, THE DREAMER did manage to pick up the Pura Belpre Award to go with its earlier Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor.  (A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS didn’t get any Youth Media love, but was, of course, the other Boston Globe-Honor Book Honor.)  And WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON was a Stonewall Honor book and Odyssey Honor audiobook.

The Newbery went to MOON OVER MANIFEST with honors to TURTLE IN PARADISE, HEART OF A SAMURAI, and DARK EMPEROR.  The National Book Award went to MOCKINGBIRD.  Our juvenile picks included COUNTDOWN, KEEPER, and A TALE DARK AND GRIMM.  And obviously, we all picked ONE CRAZY SUMMER.  FORGE is the odd man out.

The Printz went to SHIP BREAKER which was also a National Book Award finalist.  Our fantasy picks included A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS and THE RING OF SOLOMON (and I guess you can also lump KEEPER, TALE, and HEREVILLE into the genre at the juvenile end).  We had a hard time leaving so much great fantasy off the list, namely FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK, THE …

» Continue Reading: Commentator Jonathan Hunt Considers this Year’s Contenders