SLJ's Battle of the Kids Books: Predictions

I personally thought it'd be fun to make some predictions before knowing which author judge is assigned to which battle. Often I make my predictions based on the judges preferred tastes (as if I knew) and it usually bites me big time. So instead, I'm going to make my predictions this year without the knowledge of who's judging what.

Round 1

• AMELIA LOST over ANYA'S GHOST
• BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY over BOOTLEG
• THE CHESHIRE CHEESE CAT over CHIME
• DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE over DEAD END IN NORVELT
• DRAWING FROM MEMORY over THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING
• INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN over HEART AND SOUL
• A MONSTER CALLS over LIFE
• OKAY FOR NOW over WONDERSTRUCK

Round 2

• BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY over AMELIA LOST
• DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE over THE CHESHIRE CHEESE CAT
• DRAWING FROM MEMORY over INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN
• A MONSTER CALLS over OKAY FOR NOW

Round 3

• DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE over BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY
• A MONSTER CALLS over DRAWING FROM MEMORY

Winner of the Undead Poll: OKAY FOR NOW

Big Kahuna Round

• DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE over A MONSTER CALLS, and OKAY FOR NOW

Tough Calls . . .

THE CHESHIRE CHEESE CAT over CHIME is a tough one to call. Both are totally different kinds of work. I personally, don't see either of these prevailing a round further, overtaking DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE, but another tough call for me was choosing OKAY FOR NOW as my predicted Undead Winner. I think CHIME has a following and could overtake it. Although based on OKAY FOR NOW's support on Heavy Medal and Goodreads, I think it would be tough to pick against it as the Undead Winner.

I also had a hard time with what to do with WONDERSTRUCK. Personally, I didn't like it at all! However, Selznick too, has appeal. I don't get it, but he does. I could see WONDERSTRUCK making a run either in the brackets or in the Undead Poll.

AMELIA LOST is another one of those titles that I could really see other authors digging. For some reason my gut is telling me BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY, but I wouldn't be surprised to see AMELIA LOST go far either.

SLJ's Battle of the Kids' Books

I love this event. Last year I was all in on A TALE DARK AND GRIMM. I love reading the judges' commentary and I love the March Madness feel of it all. However this year, I'm totally out of the loop.

There are 16 total titles. I have read 7 of them. Of those seven, OKAY FOR NOW and A MONSTER CALLS are the only 2 that I can get behind and hope for.

With a baby due any day (my wife and I's second), there's no way I can realistically devour each of the 9 remaining titles I haven't read. But I think I can tackle a third of those. 3. So which 3 do I focus on? My choices are:

- THE DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE (Because I see this as the front runner)
- DEAD END IN NORVELT (Because it's the Newbery Medal winner)
- DRAWING FROM MEMORY (Because Wendy loved it and I like Wendy's commentary over at Heavy Medal)

I'm intrigued by ANYA'S GHOST and THE GRAND PLAN TO FIX EVERYTHING and if time allows, I really would like to read THE CHESHIRE CHEESE CAT, but I'm not making any promises to myself. 3 is ambitious enough at this point in time.

Oh, and by the way, did you catch my pick to win it all?

THE DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE. Haven't even read it yet. But I think it will win it all.