EW Does a Bracket Voting Contest for “Best YA Novel Of All Time.”

Now, of course, “best of all time” is hyperbole, but EW realizes that and still is going forward with their bracket game, pitting 64 titles against each other for the “best of all time” title.  Now I tend to get my back up the minute I see another list, but I have to say this is a good one. The titles are mostly recognizably YA (the main one I’d argue with is Hugo Cabret as I see it as solidly juvenile and there are a few that were originally published for adults) and a great bunch indeed.  And since I too run a yearly bracket contest I am all for them.  They are fun ways to highlight a whole bunch of books, some of which those participating may have forgotten, overlooked, or just not known about until then.  I just voted in their first round and, boy oh boy, were some hard to decide. In some cases, it was problematic as I haven’t read all the contenders and sometimes voted unfairly for the one of the pair I had. I didn’t vote when I hadn’t read either book, tempted though I was to go for the one that I’d heard better things about.  But this sort of thing is basically random and fun — that is true for the BoB as well. It gets the word out, gets folks looking at books they didn’t know about, and is all good, to my mind. Well done, EW!  I’m on tenterhooks to see what titles advance to round two!

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