{"id":9024,"date":"2012-03-16T21:28:20","date_gmt":"2012-03-17T01:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=9024"},"modified":"2012-03-16T21:55:37","modified_gmt":"2012-03-17T01:55:37","slug":"battle-of-the-kids-books-week-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=9024","title":{"rendered":"Battle of the Kids’ Books, Week Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books<\/a> has completed it’s first week, and I guessed EVERY match correctly<\/a>! Go me!<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s helping that this year, for the first time, I’ve read ALL the contenders. Mind you, I only finished them this week, but I did finish every book before its match. And tonight, I posted a review of a book in Monday’s match, The Grand Plan to Fix Everything<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

So it’s time to post my picks for the rest of the first round. I have no more excuses.<\/p>\n

But right away, Monday’s match, Drawing from Memory<\/a><\/em> vs. The Grand Plan to Fix Everything<\/a><\/em>, is a super tough match to decide.<\/p>\n

Before I read Grand Plan<\/em>, I was sure Drawing from Memory<\/em> would win. It’s a unique book, not quite a graphic memoir, not quite a picture book, and a true story as well. It doesn’t fit well with Newbery or Caldecott criteria, but it’s definitely a distinguished book.<\/p>\n

Grand Plan<\/em> has the disadvantage of being in Present Tense, which I hate, but the book itself completely won me over. And I find myself thinking we need a few light-hearted books in this Battle. Things are a bit dreary so far. On top of that, Barbara O’Connor’s books are much more like Grand Plan<\/em> than Drawing from Memory<\/em>, and I know from painful experience that judges often don’t<\/em> pick the book most like their own. But it’s really hard for me not to tap her as choosing The Grand Plan to Fix Everything<\/em>. It seems almost like a book she would have written.<\/p>\n

But on reflection, for excellence in art and story, for NOT being in present tense, and for being least like a book the judge would write herself, I’m going to pick Drawing from Memory<\/em>. But I won’t be sad if I’m wrong — it would be nice to have a light-hearted book left in the second round.<\/p>\n

I’m afraid the other Round One matches were pretty easy for me. Let’s just say I didn’t like Life: An Exploded Diagram<\/em> or Inside Out and Back Again<\/em> enough to review them. Okay, let’s say a little more. Life<\/em> felt like a literary book for adults, not a book for teens, since a lot of the book is from an adult’s perspective. If I had picked it up expecting a literary book for adults, I probably would have enjoyed it more, though it still wouldn’t have been a favorite. With Inside Out and Back Again<\/em>, it was up against my not being terribly fond of prose poems. Besides that, it reminded me of K. A. Applegate’s Home of the Brave<\/a><\/em>, which aroused a lot more sympathy in me, for some reason.<\/p>\n

That makes my pick for Match Six, Heart and Soul<\/em>, and my pick for Match Seven, A Monster Calls<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Match Eight, Okay for Now<\/a><\/em> vs. Wonderstruck<\/em>, was more difficult. I did think Wonderstruck<\/em> was brilliant, and I wish it weren’t up against that book I championed all year long, Okay for Now<\/em>. So despite Wonderstruck<\/em>‘s excellence, for Match Eight, I have to go with my favorite middle grade book in this competition (How’s that for couching my words?), Okay for Now<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I’ve written reviews for Heart and Soul<\/em>, A Monster Calls<\/em>, and Wonderstruck<\/em>, and will try to post them all before their matches. Meanwhile, may the odds be ever in your favor!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books has completed it’s first week, and I guessed EVERY match correctly! Go me! Maybe it’s helping that this year, for the first time, I’ve read ALL the contenders. Mind you, I only finished them this week, but I did finish every book before its match. And tonight, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[189],"class_list":["post-9024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","tag-sljsbob"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}