SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books’ Finale

This year’s Battle of the Kids’ Books has been amazing. I’m totally biased, of course, but I truly feel that each judge has written a remarkable decision essay.  For that is what they really are — thoughtful and carefully written articles, each on two books.  Some of the judges ended up going for books that you might expect of them (due to their own writing) while others did not. And each of the fourteen who judged the rounds leading up to this Monday’s Big Kahuna finale (judged by Richard Peck) came up with unique ways of deciding their matches. Here are tastes of each that I hope intrigue you enough to go (if you haven’t already) and read their decisions in total:

• Francisco X. Stork decided to abandoned “fun” as a criteria and went for the match winner’s “elegant, readable, complexity.”
• Dana Reinhardt decided that “there is just as much drama and adventure in a girl riding a rope swing over a pit of gravel despite her paralyzing fear because she wants to impress the brown eyed boy she loves, as there is in a newly minted king orchestrating the defeat of ten thousand….”
• Barry Lyga split himself in two and wrote his decision as a One Act Play.
• The match winner’s “lasting resonance of its narrative power” was what decided Susan Patron.
• Dubious about the graphic novel format Karen Hesse was “… forced to retract my misgivings.”
• Adam Rex called it on a footnote.
• R.L. Stine was direct and blunt in his decision.
• After contemplating character, setting, language, and plot Mitali Perkins made her decision on theme.
• Shakespearean comedy made the difference for Laura Amy Schlitz who wrote in her decision that “Comedy is a celebration of human resilience.”
• Naomi Shihab was won over by how a contender’s “… muscular and forward-moving, the lavish hum of place, waves, longing, wrap around a reader with hypnotic transporting power.”
• An all-nighter factored into Patricia Reilly Giff’s choice as did finding the winning contender’s creator’s “… imagination dazzling.”
• Pete Hauptman channeled his childhood self in his decision.
• “One is soul-filling while the other satisfying. For me, I’ll go with the soul and I choose…” wrote Grace Lin.
• Karen Cushman was gobsmacked!

SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books

The battle is nigh.

On Monday, March 13th, sixteen acclaimed 2010 books for young readers will go head to head in School Library Journal‘s third annual Battle of the Kids’ Books. Inspired by The Morning News Tournament of Books these literary contenders are paired off bracket-style and judged by a distinguished group of writers.  R. L. Stine, Richard Peck, Karen Hesse, and Laura Amy Schlitz are just some of the remarkable decision-makers in this year’s exciting event. Every weekday over the next few weeks you can read their smart and thoughtful match decisions.

While seeing which book a particular judge decides to advance is understandably exciting, it is what they have to say about the two they are considering and how they say it that is most enthralling.  Understanding the serious play that is involved, each one is considerate and clever and it is their elegantly penned decisions that are the heart and soul of the Battle.

This year’s contenders are:

Sugar Changed the World by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos
Keeper by Kathi Appelt
They Called Themselves the K.K.K. by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword by Barry Deutsch
A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
The Odyssey by Gareth Hinds
Trash by Andy Mulligan
As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth by Lynne Rae Perkins
The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan
The Cardturner by Louis Sachar
The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie by Tanya Lee Stone
The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud
A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
Countdown by Deborah Wiles
One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

One of the creators of the event, here’s what I had to say in a recent press release:

Each year I’m completely energized by the Battle of the Kids’ Books. The judges always outdo themselves in smart, witty, and insightful decisions getting me to look at each contender in new ways. It is just fun to work together to keep the Battle of the Kids’ Books entertaining, stimulating, and most of all—fun.

Sponsored by HarperCollins Children’s Books and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, this year’s Battle of the Kids’ Book is shaping up to be the best one yet.

Also at the Huffington Post

Battling Books, Why?

Recently, an individual I admire mentioned SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books with distaste. Why, this person wondered, does everything have to be a competition? As someone who doesn’t follow sports of any kind, hates spelling bees and similar sorts of school activities, and doesn’t watch the Oscars or American Idol, I find it an excellent question. And so why despite my dislike of competition did I come up with this event?

I was inspired by The Tournament of Books which features adult literary fiction and offers a live rooster to the winner because of something to do with David Sedaris’s brother. In last year’s ToB contender announcement the organizers wrote:

But note that the arbitrary nature of this contest does not make it more random than other book awards. For all their diligence and secrecy, book awards rely on the particular tastes of a very few individuals combined with the art of compromise. Not only can book awards not tell you what the best book of the year is, frequently the winner of a book award is not anyone’s actual favorite, but rather not anyone’s least favorite.

What the Rooster stands for is not definitiveness, but transparency. Transparency and fun.

And fun is what I’ve found it to be. Over the years I’d loved their smart discussion about the books, often ended up reading some of their contenders because of it, and thought it would be wonderful to do something similar with children’s books. Roxanne Feldman and Jonathan Hunt thought so too as did SLJ (who came up with the name, I’d probably have gone with something less, er, warlike) and so we were off.

It is, to my mind a game, a way to consider last year’s books, and to consider literature in a wide variety of ways. I see it as a competition only in the way that Shark vs Train is a competition. In other words, the tournament concept gives us a structure that allows us to have fun, be silly and lighthearted; it is a way to consider intellectually and intelligently a handful of the many wonderful books that came out the year before. (For an excellent take on last year’s ToB that I feel captures what the BoB is about as well, check out this column by Laura Miller.) The judges have been absolutely incredible and I can’t thank them enough for their smart write-ups.  We also have a terrific bunch of loyal followers who comment, blog, read, and otherwise have a great time along with us.

This past week Jonathan asked them:

… what is the primary value of Battle of the Kids’ Books for you? Is it purely entertainment? Is it instructive? Is it motivational for children and teenagers? Or strictly for an adult audience?

The responses have been heartening and for those of you who wonder about the idea, I suggest checking them out.  And join in if you disagree. We can take it. After all, we completely understand that what we like about the BoB may not be everyone’s cuppa tea.

ETA Please check out Roxanne’s thoughtful and detail response to this.

So Who Will be Judging the Battle of the Kids’ Books?

The contenders for this year’s Battle of the Kids’ Books have been announced, debate on the lack of overlap with this year’s ALA awards is underway, and many are wondering — who will be judging?  While those distinguished persons won’t be revealed for a few more weeks yet, we’ve given you a few hints and have a little contest going. Who will get closest to the actual list?

SLJ’s Battle of the Kids Books 2011 Contenders

These were just announced on twitter today and will be presented more formally on the official BoB blog very soon. But since we know there are avid BoB followers who want time to get and read the books, we decided to do a stealth/soft announcement just for you.  And now that they’ve all been announced, here they are again in a nice easy-to-read list.

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

 

SLJs Battle of the Kids’ Books Stealth Announcement…

of the 2011 Contenders. Follow @SLJsBoB to get the first word on these!

SLJ’s Battle of the Kids Books 2011

With yesterday’s announcements it is easy to think that we are now done with 2010 books and on to those of 2011.  But not so fast.  This year’s Battle of the Kids Books (more commonly known as the BoB) is revving up! The contenders were finalized in December, the judges are all in place, a new blog in the works, and an official announcement is forthcoming any day now. Just as there were surprises galore at yesterday’s Youth Media Awards press conference, count on a few when the BoB’s 2011 list of contenders is unveiled.  While waiting (and it won’t be long now, I promise!) do check out last year’s blog for more on how it all works.  For example, from the BoB FAQ, here’s how we come up with the list:

Each year Monica, Roxanne, and Jonathan start emailing each other in the fall with numerous versions of the list of contenders.  The first year, even before we made up our long list, we spent a lot of time considering criteria.  For example, how would a picture book fare against a YA novel?  Recognizing that there had to be some form of unity among the books on the roster we decided that the “fairest” thing was to select titles for a similar audience (middle grade, middle school, and high school readers). Once that was settled we spent many weeks working on a very long list that was winnowed down to the final 16 contenders in early December.

As to which titles finally are included each year – we won’t bore you with the details of the dozens of emails and negotiations between the three of us.  Suffice it to say that we look both objectively and subjectively, considering fan favorites, awards, stars, and our own critical views, keeping in mind that no matter which two books are paired together no single title can be an obvious winner.

Of course, as is inevitable when such a list is made, blood is shed; each of the three of us has had to leave behind favorites on this particular battlefield, but we always end up pleased with the range and diversity of the final list.

Newbery Season

As we head into autumn, speculation about this year’s award winners is mounting (at least among those of us who are obsessed with such things).  The Cybils are getting underway, there’s a wonderful event attached to the Boston Globe-Horn Book awards this year at Simmons College, and the various ALA mock award groups are building steam.  One of my favorites is the Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog run by my pals Nina Lindsay and Jonathan Hunt.  Nina was chair of my 2008 Newbery Committee and Jonathan is one of my collaborators for the BoB.  Those that followed their blog last year know how smart and fun it was.  They’ve just opened it up for this year and I’m psyched!

Congratulations, Betsy Partridge!

Betsy’s Marching for Freedom, winner of SLJ’s 2010 Battle of the Kids’ Books, has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the Young Adult Catagory.  Bravo!

The Finale of this year’s Battle of the Kids’ Books

(Yep, I’m half of the Battle Commander.)

It has been so much fun running this year’s Battle of the Kids’ Books. SLJ built a new arena, set-up a t-shirt giveaway, and got us the best writer-judges ever.  These last made thoughtful and often very unexpected decisions about our contenders and the Undead winner (the book contender that was voted back into the competition) was quite surprising to many.

I’m so glad that there are many who get this contest — that it is a way to remind people of 16 exemplary books of 2009 when we are already focused on those of 2010.  They also realize what a great opportunity it is to read essays by brilliant writers as they consider literature, young readers, genre, and a whole lot more.

Today Children’s Literature Ambassador Katherine Paterson makes the final decision, but if you have missed any of the early ones you can read them all at the Battle site.

If you have any suggestions for next year’s Battle do put them in the comments below.  (For example, if you are interested in leading a group of young people shadowing the contest as happens for the Carnegie, we’d love to know.  It is something I’ve wanted to do and maybe we will get it off the ground next year.)  Or comment at the site.

Can’t wait till we do this again!