Tag Archives: Battle of the Kids’ Books

I don’t know about anyone else, but after reading today’s short judge bio (penned by Stroud himself) there at SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books, I was pumped in anticipation for the final Kahuna Round on April 2nd: which persona will Stroud use in presenting his decision of the ultimate winner of 2012 BoB?  Such fun, speculating.

Last summer, in New Orleans, the Battle Commander and the Commentator of BoB had a great evening discussing children’s books and the fun that is Battle of the Kids’ Books — both the behind the scene managing of the site and the joy of reading the judges’ insightful and often creative decision papers.  Jonathan Stroud was gracious, modest, and full of droll wit.  The BoB team was entirely charmed.  Here is a photo commemorating the evening:

We are gearing up!!! The authors will be announced VERY VERY soon — actually, if you subscribe to SLJ print, you probably have already seen the 16 contenders published in 2011. What do you think?

The brand new site is here: http://battleofthebooks.slj.com/

And Monica and I have been asking a couple of our students to be official kid commentators who will read pairs of books and express their opinions after they see the judges’ decisions. I wonder if teachers and librarians in other schools/libraries will do the same. It’s a great way to get kids excited about reading and they can read as few as two books (from the first round) to feel very involved. Or they can read (like some of our students did last year) the whole slate of books and have a real sense of pride as being so informed!

These are solid titles – we have graphic novels, non-fiction, fantasy, books for 8-10 year olds, books for young adults, books from the U.S. and outside of the U.S. And wait until you see this year’s judges!!! So, stay tuned, follow the matches, and weigh in on these 16 very very fine 2011 titles!!