When the 2013 brackets were announced for School Library Journal’s bookish version of March Madness, Battle of the Books, I was very excited because for once, I’ve already read many of them. This week, I realized that I am just 6 books shy of having read all of them, and reading 6 more books seems quite reasonable, especially as they’re all books I want to read, so I am busily trying to finish the 6 books I haven’t yet read or finished, in bold below:
Round One
Match 1 – March 12 Bomb vs Wonder – judged by Kenneth Oppel
Match 2 – March 13 Code Name Verity vs Titanic – judged by Margarita Engle
Match 3 – March 14 Endangered vs Three Times Lucky – judged by Kathi Appelt
Match 4 – March 15 The Fault in Our Stars vs Temple Grandin – judged by Deb Caletti
Match 5 – March 18 Jepp Who Defied the Stars vs Starry River of the Sky – judged by Adam Gidwitz
Match 6 – March 19 Liar & Spy vs Splendors and Glooms – judged by Franny Billingsley
Match 7 – March 20 Moonbird vs Seraphina – judged by Marie Lu
Match 8 – March 21 No Crystal Stair vs The One and Only Ivan – judged by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
If Moonbird is the book I think it is, and Seraphina is the book I think it is, how can these two be competing? One is nonfiction, the other fiction/fantasy.
Well, that’s the fun of Battle of the Books: totally insane book pairings! I have no idea how you judge between Moonbird, which I loved, and Seraphina, which I also loved but for very different reasons. It’s always fun to read the judge’s decisions for just that reason. I still have 2.5 books to go (and probably won’t get Splendors & Gloom read because it’s the only book on the list I don’t have a copy of), but I feel very confident in pronouncing Code Name Verity the best book on the list!