{"id":8974,"date":"2012-03-13T22:12:58","date_gmt":"2012-03-14T02:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=8974"},"modified":"2012-03-13T22:27:33","modified_gmt":"2012-03-14T02:27:33","slug":"battle-of-the-kids-books-week-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=8974","title":{"rendered":"Battle of the Kids’ Books, Week One"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I stayed home from work with a headache, but on the plus side, the one thing I was able to do was read, and I finished two contenders from School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books<\/a>, Between Shades of Gray<\/em>, by Ruta Sepetys, and The Grand Plan to Fix Everything<\/em>, by Uma Krishnaswami. That leaves me with only one book left of the sixteen contestants. It’s probably the shortest, Inside Out and Back Again<\/em>, so I hope to finish it tonight or tomorrow.<\/p>\n

Since Inside Out and Back Again<\/em> doesn’t compete until next week, I thought I’d post my picks for the first week.<\/p>\n

The first match happened today. My pick, Amelia Lost<\/a><\/em>, was the winner. Judge Matt Phelan gave a brilliant analysis of both books.<\/p>\n

Getting them finished in the nick of time, tonight I posted reviews of both of tomorrow’s contenders: Between Shades of Gray<\/a><\/em>, by Ruta Sepetys, and Bootleg<\/a><\/em>, by Karen Blumenthal.<\/p>\n

You can see from my reviews that I thought both books were brilliant. But for my pick to win, I have to go with Between Shades of Gray<\/em> for the way it made me continually forget that I was reading fiction, not fact.<\/p>\n

The remaining matches this week involve two of my favorites for the entire tournament, so these ones I care a lot more about:<\/p>\n

For The Cheshire Cheese Cat<\/em> vs. Chime<\/a><\/em>, I definitely want Chime<\/em> to win.<\/p>\n

For Daughter of Smoke and Bone<\/a><\/em> vs. Dead End in Norvelt<\/em>, despite the brilliance of Newbery-winning Dead End in Norvelt<\/em>, my heart is solidly with Daughter of Smoke and Bone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But, again, half the fun is reading the judges’ analysis and opinions. Who will win this year? Stay tuned!<\/p>\n

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