Leave the basketballs to the sports fans and grab your books!
It's March Madness and while basketball aficionados are glued to the television watching their favorite teams play game after game, literature fans have their own way of celebrating with several annual "battle of the books." Various publications and websites hosted battles relating to literary fiction, fantasy novels, children's book and even cookbooks; there's something for every reader.
Each year, School Library Journal takes charge of the children's and young adult March Madness by hosting The Battle of the Kids' Books. During this friendly competition, 16 of the very best children's books from the previous year are pitted against each other. Led and moderated by the Battle Commander, SLJ selects judges from the children's literature world to read, then choose, between two of the books. This year's judges include well-regarded authors such as Francisco Stork, Mitali Perkins and Grace Lin.
Choosing between two worthy, but often quite different, books is a difficult task for these judges. Many times, several of the books have won numerous awards - how can one possibly stack up against another? Each judge writes a blog post explaining his or her thought-process and, essentially, defending his or her ultimate choice. Some judges even get creative with their decision - author Barry Lyga wrote his as a one-act play between himself and his clone. Readers participate by voting for their favorite book in the "Undead" poll, which gives the winner a second chance and allows that book to come back from "the dead" to battle against the final two contenders.
There are always surprises during the Battle of the Kids' Books and 2011 is no exception. Among them: One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia has already been knocked out of contention in round one! Williams-Garcia book was a 2011 Newbery Honor book, winner of the 2011 Coretta Scott King Book Award, winner of the 2011 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction AND a 2010 National Book Award finalist. And yet it seems even the mighty One Crazy Summer couldn't stand the heat of Battle of the Books.
Though it may come back in the final round as the "Undead" winner, Williams-Garcia's loss proves that during March Madness - even March Madness with books - anything can happen.
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