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

  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

Trash by Andy Mulligan David Fickling/Random House The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud Hyperion Books Judged by Karen Cushman

When I first saw the two titles that were coming my way, I assumed that one would deal with serious contemporary issues and the other be a fairy tale. I was right, but I put the hats on the wrong heads.

Trash is a gripping examination of unthinkable poverty, abuse, and official corruption. Andy Mulligan gives us adventure, danger, mystery, a treasure hunt, and coded messages. Some have called it a book about a dystopian future. I found it unfortunately much too likely and current. And yet it is a fairy tale, pitting good children against evil adults, who out-clever and out-maneuver the grownups and live happily ever after. They accomplish all this by lying and stealing with little remorse. It’s all they know and their means of survival. It put me in mind of Hansel and Gretel eating the witch’s house, substituting a chicken bone for Hansel’s finger, and finally pushing the witch into the oven she had prepared for the children.

The book, like the Grimm’s fairy tale, asks who are the villains? Who the real thieves and liars?

I loved Trash (I hear Oscar the Grouch singing every time I type the word) and cared deeply about the boys. I loved Raphael’s little shelf of treasures, Rat’s pride and shame at sharing his hole with the other boys, Raphael throwing his arm over Rat as …

» Continue Reading: Round 3, Match 2: Trash vs. The Ring of Solomon

Keeper by Kathi Appelt Atheneum/Simon & Schuster The Cardturner by Louis Sachar Delacorte Books/Random House Judged by Grace Lin

When I was asked to be a Battle of the Books judge I hurriedly became acquainted with all the original titles, as I was unsure which two books I would be choosing from. To save time, I listened to many of them on audio book while I worked on illustrations or commuted. One of the first audio books I listened to was Keeper. I have to admit, the audio book did not enamor me and I stopped listening half way though. I thought Keeper would be at the bottom of my list.

However, Keeper turned out to be one of the two books for me to choose from and, valuing the opinions of the esteemed judges before me, I knew I had to give the book another chance. So, with physical book in hand, I began to read.

And what a difference! When I read the book, suddenly the magic became apparent. I loved the slow unveiling of each story, the way the back and forth narratives seemed to echo the motion of the ocean waves that rocked Keeper’s boat. I found the fantasy elements of Yemaya and Jacque der Mer enchanting and I could feel the heartbreak of each character. Even the animals—the dog BD and the crow Captain had fully-realized personalities.

The blurring of myth and reality was seamless and the writing was poetic, yet always accessible. …

» Continue Reading: Round 3, Match 1: Keeper vs. The Cardturner