School Library Journal's Battle of the Kids' Books

Posts of the Week 

The Book Nut’s Weekly Roundup #2, and Quarterfinal Roundup. Emily Brown weighs in and makes an interesting suggestion:

So I’m enjoying the Battle of the Kids Books, but in comparing it to the Morning News Tournament of Books, I do find it lacking in the commentary department. The judges give you their experience of the book, so I’d like the commentators to connect the decisions to trends and issues in the field of kidlit … instead of just saying whether they agree or disagree.

Liz B on Chime v Smoke, Drawing v  Again, Diagram v Wonderstruck, Gray v Chime, Memory v Life, and Timothy Rising from the Dead. Bookshelves of doom is “YESSSSSSSSSS!” for her champion. Brandy’s thoughts on the final four and the finalists. Reads for Keeps’ Round 3 Inklings. Sondy’s chanting Go, Zombie, Go! A Spectator’s Commentary, Week 3. And here’s one …SLJBotB Commentary….Better Late Than Never!

Tweets of the Week 

elockhart This is my round! Some of you WON’T LIKE the opener. RT @SLJsBoB: Chime vs Daughter of Smoke & Bone http://bit.ly/GTvgYL #sljbob12 rockinlibrarian @elockhart @SLJsBoB Well we’re peculiar in the same way, then. I haven’t read both books, but I at least agree with you on romance.  brandymuses This was a good one to wake up to. RT @SLJsBoB: Round 2, Match 2: Chime vs Daughter of Smoke and Bone KateCoombs13 @brandymuses @SLJsBoB I liked both books, but I’m with you on this one. What amazing writing! (I say, trying not to be spoilerish.) elizabethfama Good question hidden in @SLJsBoB‘s comments today: Does Briony being a witch make …

» Continue Reading: This Week’s Peanut Gallery

Many passionate posts and tweets in response to this week’s upsets! As always, let us know in the comments about any we missed and we’ll either add them in here or in next week’s Peanut Gallery.

Posts of the Week 

Paula’s Bracket Predictions and a bonus one for Life to boot. The Card Catalog has been following along wonderfully; check out: The Battle is About to Begin, And So It Begins, Poor E. Lockhart, Global Nods, and Thrills and Rages. Mr. H’s predictions are here and then there is his One Round in the Bag. Book Nut’s first week round-up is here. Attention is given at the Huffington Post (both on the children’s book page and their March Madness page). Booksnstories notes that BoB flows on and BoB-WRONG! Sondy’s thoughts as we headed into Week Two and the rest of the Battle. Sonoma County Library notes that it is Time to Battle It Out Again! Liz B’s thoughts on Memory v Fix, Soul v Inside, Life v Monster, Now v Wonderstruck, and Amelia v Shades. Nicole’s got the second week of her spectator’s commentary. And here’s Brandy with her Round One Wrap Up and Round Two Picks.

Tweets of the Week 

@YABookLove Never thought I would say this… but Monday morning can’t come fast enough. Why? Bc @SLJsBoB will be back! @elockhart I am up. I have already made lemon-raspberry bread and read the latest #sljbob12 battle. Ridiculously perky. Should crash by 10 am. @Mizzou a March Madness we can still cheer for. @sarahsulliv But on a brighter note, I’m still rocking a PERFECT …

» Continue Reading: This Week’s Peanut Gallery

Blog Posts of the Week  (As always, let us know in the comments about any we missed and we’ll either add them in here or in next week’s Peanut Gallery)

Katie’s witty ‘Twas the Night Before BoB: Predictions. Liz B’s got her picks here as well as posts on Lost v Ghost, Between v Bootleg, Cheshire v Chime, and Bone v Norvelt. Kathy did her own judging: Amelia vs Anya and  Sepetys vs Blumenthal. Judge Barbara O’Connor was very psyched as we got underway! Susan Lempke has an understandable pet peeve about us. Proof that BoB gets people reading in Katie’s review of Amelia Lost where she acknowledges that “I probably never would have [read it], except it’s the very first contender in the very first round of SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books. And I know that the BOB doesn’t do bad books.” Brandy’s Round One Thoughts and her reactions at the end of the first week. Book Nut’s a fan (and we hope she does do wrap-ups as we’ll then link them here). Friend of BoB Sondy has some thoughts about Week One and picks for Week Two. Reads for Keeps’ Lisa Song offered Opinions, not Predictions and Foiled by a Coin Toss! Roger Sutton briefly weighs in on the coin toss as well. BooksnStories on BoB-KBWT,  BoB Whatever, and a few random notes as well. The LA Times mentioned us. SLJ featured a behind-the-scenes look at the Everdeen Sisters making of the “official” BoB Trailer. Reading. Writing. Publishing. A Blog has a Spectator’s Commentary. …

» Continue Reading: This Week’s Peanut Gallery

These Peanut Gallery posts are where we highlight responses to the latest BoB activity. And so here are some recent ones related to this year’s contest that we came across. If we missed yours, let us know in the comments and we’ll add them in here.

Paula over at Pink Me will be following along and has weighed in on where she stands regarding this year’s contenders. Noticing a clever article comparing UK and US covers for the Tournament of Books (our inspiration) and knowing her interest in this we suggested to Betsy Bird that she might want to take a similar look at our contenders and she obliged. Thanks, Betsy! Liz B has been a loyal follower since the beginning, always doing posts on each battle and she’s got one up now about this year’s contenders. Slightly Addicted to Fiction is following along (and dreaming of an Australian version). Here are a few especially fun tweets we noticed: @Doug Dwieteck @SLJsBoB @ReadingChick So March 22 is a big day. Any idea who TBD is? I’ve got two nice bottles of really cold Coke to share. @Sonderbooks My #fridayreads will be Life: An Exploded Diagram, by Mal Peet, an@SLJsBoB contender. @sarazarr Yes, I am a judge in the @sljournal‘s Battle of the Kids’ Books! And I can say NO MORE than that. http://bit.ly/zelAQS (follow at@SLJsBoB) @brandymuses I review Pie by Sarah Weekshttp://randommusingsofabibliophile.blogspot.com/2012/02/pie.html That I posted this the same day she was announced as an@SLJsBoB judge is coincidental. @lbott @SLJsBoB Looked at list; love contenders, but 2 of my favorites are pitted against each other: Okay …

» Continue Reading: A Few Recent Peanuts and Tweets

These Peanut Gallery posts are where we highlight responses to the latest BoB activity. And so here are some celebrating this week’s announcement of the 2012 Contenders. If we missed yours, let us know in the comments and we’ll add them in here.

Our lovely School Library Journal did a bang-up article (with a couple of witty images from our wonderful art director Mark Tuchman) featuring this year’s Battle (and giving away a few, but not all of our judges). And the equally lovely Betsy Bird gave us a shot-out, noting that here is, “… the place where Amelia Lost gets its bloody due (if there’s any justice in this world).” Someone had the brilliant idea of creating a list of the contenders over at goodreads.  So now you can vote for your favorites there! Brain Lair is planning to read or reread all the contenders in bracket order, “so I can do a comparison of each and try to guess the winner before the judges do.”  Count me as very impressed. Reading is Good for You realizes that some of our contenders are mysteries to her so “..a trip to the library is in my future.” A Random Hodgepodge of Bookishness intends to get all the contenders read before the battle begins and notes, “The best thing about this battle is reading what authors think of these books – their insightful, eloquent, sometimes humorous reviews.” BooksnStories is ready to go while also expressing her thoughts on what didn’t make …

» Continue Reading: Contenders Announcement Peanut Gallery

Here’s what we’ve come across this week. Let us know what we’ve missed in the comments.

Here’s Book Nut on Week Two. Mr. H is sad. Sondy’s thoughts on Round Two and Round Two. Josephine Cameron is catching up (and finding new books to read). Gail Gauthier is pleased with Bartimaeus’ progress and has some thoughts about the battle here. Eva tuned in briefly. Liz B keeps is keeping on top of ALL the matches here! Dalton BookBlogger c17rg on how he’d have decided Round 2 Match 4,  final predictions, and a response. The Sounis folk are gloating. Here’s another take on the undead winner. Kara Schaff Dean on the final three. educating alice (one half of the Battle Commander) reflects on all the matches to date.

Here’s what we’ve come across this week.  As always, if we missed yours, let us know in the comments and we’ll add it in here or in next week’s Peanut Gallery.

Judge Rex did some fretting last Sunday night. Book Nut on the first week of the competition. Eric Carpenter has a Leader Board and some ideas about what will happen in Round Two. Liz B’s on a roll with posts on Round One’s Matches 6, 7, and 8 and Match 1 from Round Two. Slightly Addicted to Fiction gives us her thoughts here. Spring Break hasn’t kept one of our Dalton Book Bloggers are following along too.  Enthusiastic c19rg has thoughts about this week’s first round decisions here, here,  and here, as well as one considering round two here. And here are BoB musing from Random Musings of a Bibliophile. Sondy’s here with hers. Gareth Hinds was very pleased with Judge Hesse. Notes from the Max notes us.

Here’s what we’ve come across this week.  As always, if we missed yours, let us know in the comments and we’ll add it in here or in next week’s Peanut Gallery.

Roger Sutton thinks our first judge is a ….well, go see for yourself! Slightly Addicted to Fiction appears addicted to us too. The Brain Lair has her first round picks here. And here are Brandy Painter’s. The Los Angeles Times mentioned us in…um… “The Crazy Proliferation of March Madness Book Contests.“ Miss Julie also includes our Battle in her round-up. Good Books for Kids is “…glad we aren’t judges.“ The Dalton School Book Bloggers have some, er, strong thoughts about this week here, here, here as well as this take on one of next week’s battles. Based on his Bracket Challenge, here are Eric Carpenter’s Round One Previews: Part 1 and Part 2. Linda suggests that “This would be a fun reading activity in your school using the Battle of the Kids’ Books list or your own list.”  We agree. Liz Burns on Match 1, Match 2, Match 3, Match 4, and Match 5. Kara Schaff Dean on the story so far and a bit farther. PCL Book Space is pleased with Judge Stork’s decision, reflects on Tuesday’s match. Wednesday‘s, and Thursday‘s. Conspiracy of Kings’ fans are not giving up. Eva on the first three matches. Mr. H was outraged with Barry Lyga’s decision! Mirka and Barry are gracious. Finally, the Everdeen Sisters are back!

It is the eve of the Battle and all is quiet, more or less.  Here’s what we’ve come across over the past week related to our contest.  As always, let us know in the comments if we’ve missed yours and we’ll either add it in to this post or save it for next week’s edition.

Kate Coombs was inspired by the BoB to do her own awards. Shoshana is contemplating about what may happen next week. Mr. H’s got his ducks—er, picks all in a row. Did he get any right?  We aren’t saying. And Sondy’s got her first round picks here. The Children’s Room at the Takoma Park Maryland Library also is considering the upcoming event. Librarians in Central Texas are following along. Over at the Dalton School (where the two halves of the Battle Commander work), students in the Book Blogger Club (grades 5-7) have taken on the first bracket and some have already made their own decisions: c18jy gives her decision on Match 1,  c17rg weighs in on Match 2 and  c18gi weighs in on all of Round 1. We were delighted when our inspiration, The Tournament of Books’ Morning News, gave us a shout-out on their front page earlier this week.