School Library Journal's Battle of the Kids' Books

Thank you so much for many wonderful comments, whether you commented daily or just once or twice to let us know your thoughts on specific titles and matches.  The winners of the 2012 BoB Giveaways are drawn from more than 100 names.  We will contact each winner via email to arrange for prize delivery.  Congratulations!

Heidi wins a set of Gerald Morris’ series The Knights’ Tales. Sondy wins a set of the 43 Old Cemetery Road series by Kate and Sarah Klise. Elissa wins a set of Sy Montgomery’s nonfiction books including her latest, a biography of Temple Grandin. Steffaney Smith wins a Just Grace tote bag with all 8 series books and bookmarks. Maisie Mac wins the Grave Mercy pack – Grave Mercy t-shirt, bookmarks, buttons, and book.

(Provided by our sponsor Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.)

Indigo wins an autographed copy of Inside Out and Back Again. DavidB wins an autographed copy of Inside Out and Back Again. Chelle wins an autographed copy of Inside Out and Back Again. Genevieve wins an autographed copy of Heart and Soul. Moe wins an autographed copy of Heart and Soul.

(Provided by our sponsor HarperCollins.)

As many of BoB followers pointed out, SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books site is not only thought provoking and fun to read, it is also a total joy to look at: all because we have the ingenious and whimsical Match graphics and other icons.  Who has created all these images?  You asked, and we answer here:

Mark Tuchman, SLJ’s Creative Director

Mark has been working at SLJ for the last ten years and recently collected his design work here:  http://marktuchman.wordpress.com.  His prior freelance work illustrating for newspapers and magazines such as Glamour, NY Newsday, The Daily News, Scholastic, Black Enterprise and Seventeen can be viewed here: www.marktuchman.com.

We couldn’t thank Mark enough for giving us the pleasure of receiving the graphics for the Match posts and sharing them with all the BoB fans.  We feel it a fitting tribute to Mark’s talents and dedication by exhibiting a selection of his BoB designs for the past four years.  Please enjoy!

2009 Battle Brackets:

2009 Match Design (based on crude design by the Battle Commander):

Peanut Gallery Banner:

2009 winner The Hunger Games on the top and third tiers of the winners podium:

2010 Early Brackets:

Victory Tour of 2009 BoB winner Hunger Games to 2010 Contenders:

2010 Boxing Ring Theme Match Graphic:

Confetti fluttering around Match winner (2010):

2010 Undead:

…

» Continue Reading: Who’s that Man Inside the BoB Art Studio?

As the voting opened, A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS raced to a huge lead, commanding nearly half of the votes.  As the days went by, however, that lead was whittled down to 18%, still good enough to win, but never in doubt.  A TALE DARK AND GRIMM, THEY CALLED THEMSELVES THE KKK, and WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON all pulled in just over 10% of the vote.  So there’s your final three: KEEPER vs. THE RING OF SOLOMON vs. A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS.  Place your bets!

– Commentator Jonathan Hunt

Author Elizabeth Partridge’s exemplary use of archival materials for last year’s winner Marching for Freedom inspired the Battle Commander (both halves of her) to spend some enjoyable hours poking around in the BoB’s vast attic of old stuff (the official BoB term for primary sources) to find a selection for use in this year’s Opening Ceremony. Enjoy!

Here is YOUR chance to have a say in the BoB.  You see, every contender has the chance to come back to participate in the Big Kahuna round.

How you may ask is this possible? Well, after being eliminated books make their way to the BoB Land of the Dead.  And you, yes you, have a chance to resurrect one of them, your favorite, to come back for the final bout.

And so here is how works. Before the Battle begins you may vote for the contender you most want to come back after being eliminated. (Click on the Undead Poll link on the sidebar to vote.  Once please!)   The poll will be open until March 6th, giving you plenty of time to campaign for your favorite (as a certain scientist did last year) here in the comments, on your blog (and we will start the Peanut Gallery posts soon then), on twitter, your local water cooler, or wherever else you like.

Hear our contenders plead …

We know that you have been wondering who the 2011 BoB Judges are.

We can tell you that, all fifteen of them have arrived at the judges booth!  And some of them even have started reading the books!

There are nine women and six men. Seven of them are Newbery winners or honor recipients in the last two decades. We have a poet and several masters of historical fiction. One judge writes monologues, while a few others create fantastic or futuristic worlds. Several let us peek into different cultures. Some make us ponder the real world of teens, and one of them has been scaring young readers since 1992.

Now, let the guessing game begin!

Put together a panel of 15 judges from today’s working authors for children and teens in the comment below for a chance to win some prizes!

Let’s see which entries match most closely to the actual list of the 2011 BoB Judges!

Remember: the authors for this year’s contenders are not eligible and there is no overlapping from the past two years of judges.

As announced today, one by one, on twitter, here are this year’s contenders:

AS EASY AS FALLING OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH by Lynn Rae Perkins THE CARDTURNER by Louis Sachar A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS by Megan Whalen Turner COUNTDOWN by Deborah Wiles THE DREAMER by Pam Munoz Ryan THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE BARBIE by Tanya Lee Stone HEREVILLE: HOW MIRKA GOT HER SWORD by Barry Deutsch KEEPER by Kathi Appelt THE ODYSSEY by Gareth Hinds ONE CRAZY SUMMER by Rita Williams-Garcia THE RING OF SOLOMON by Jonathan Stroud SUGAR CHANGED THE WORLD by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos A TALE DARK AND GRIMM by Adam Gidwitz THEY CALLED THEMSELVES THE K.K.K. by Susan Campbell Bartoletti TRASH by Andy Mulligan WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON by John Green and David Levithan