One Round in the Bag

Over at Battle of the Kids Books, Round One officially wrapped up this morning, with WONDERSTRUCK overtaking OKAY FOR NOW (stupid Jeff Kinney and your stupid wimpy books) . . . making my total a whopping 5 out of 8.

To review, I chose AMELIA LOST, BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY, DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE, DRAWING FROM MEMORY, and INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN correctly.

I missed the boat on CHIME, LIFE: AN EXPLODED DIAGRAM, and WONDERSTRUCK.

I'm still a little stung that THE CHESHIRE CHEESE CAT lost because of a coin toss. I threw a mini hissy fit over judge Lauren Myracle's rationale behind choosing LIFE: AN EXPLODED DIAGRAM over A MONSTER CALLS. And I really, really, really don't like WONDERSTRUCK.

Looking ahead to my initial picks, I still have three of my next four picks alive: BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY, DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE, and DRAWING FROM MEMORY. I had A MONSTER CALLS going to the final round though, so that one hurt. My overall winner however, DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE (which I am currently reading and thoroughly enjoying), is still going strong. Possibly paired in the most intriguing battle of the second round, against CHIME.

As for what I now think will happen in the second round . . . I'm not as confident about BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY being chosen over AMELIA LOST, seeing Marc Aronson as the judge, and would actually change my pick if I could. But I can't. I'm sticking with BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY but wouldn't be surprised to see AMELIA LOST.

I've gotta believe that DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE will prevail against CHIME, although the style and feel of the two books are sooooooooooo similar.

I still think DRAWING FROM MEMORY will beat out INSIDE OUT AND BACK AGAIN.

And I now think LIFE: AN EXPLODED DIAGRAM will overtake WONDERSTRUCK. LIFE would appear to be a "writer's" book. One that I, the casual reader, may struggle to make sense of (the abundance of metaphors), but that fellow writer's and peers would eat up.

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.