As many of BoB followers pointed out, SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books site is not only thought provoking and fun to read, it is also a total joy to look at: all because we have the ingenious and whimsical Match graphics and other icons.  Who has created all these images?  You asked, and we answer here:

Mark Tuchman, SLJ’s Creative Director

Mark has been working at SLJ for the last ten years and recently collected his design work here:  http://marktuchman.wordpress.com.  His prior freelance work illustrating for newspapers and magazines such as Glamour, NY Newsday, The Daily News, Scholastic, Black Enterprise and Seventeen can be viewed here: www.marktuchman.com.

We couldn’t thank Mark enough for giving us the pleasure of receiving the graphics for the Match posts and sharing them with all the BoB fans.  We feel it a fitting tribute to Mark’s talents and dedication by exhibiting a selection of his BoB designs for the past four years.  Please enjoy!

2009 Battle Brackets:

2009 Match Design (based on crude design by the Battle Commander):

Peanut Gallery Banner:

2009 winner The Hunger Games on the top and third tiers of the winners podium:

2010 Early Brackets:

Victory Tour of 2009 BoB winner Hunger Games to 2010 Contenders:

2010 Boxing Ring Theme Match Graphic:

Confetti fluttering around Match winner (2010):

2010 Undead:

…

» Continue Reading: Who’s that Man Inside the BoB Art Studio?

  Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt Clarion/HMH Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet Candlewick Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys Philomel/Penguin Judged by Jonathan Stroud

When those fine people at School Library Journal asked me to judge the conclusion of this year’s Battle of the Kids’ Books, I knew at once it was a great honour. What I didn’t know, exactly, was what a “Big Kahuna” actually was. To me it conjured an image of a patriarchal sort of cove, wearing an impressive white beard, a set of mercifully long robes and a pair of leather sandals. Probably sitting resplendent on some kind of throne. Well, I did the best I could. The beard is false, the robes are itchy, and instead of a throne I’ve got a fold-up picnic chair, but that’s all incidental. What matters is what I’ve been reading. Three superb books, the hard-won finalists of a magnificent competition.

Here’s something I discovered right off. It doesn’t matter how big your beard is, sitting in judgement is a tricky job.

Or at least it is when each of the books is so individually excellent and tonally distinctive. And when their subject matter is so apparently disparate: love and sex in the shadow of the Cuban Missile Crisis; enduring the unimaginable horrors of Stalinist persecutions; the life of a kid growing up in Vietnam-era small-town America. How do you adjudicate something like that?

Well, for …

» Continue Reading: The Big Kahuna Match: Between Shades of Gray vs Life: An Exploded Diagram vs Okay for Now

Posts of the Week 

The Book Nut’s Weekly Roundup #2, and Quarterfinal Roundup. Emily Brown weighs in and makes an interesting suggestion:

So I’m enjoying the Battle of the Kids Books, but in comparing it to the Morning News Tournament of Books, I do find it lacking in the commentary department. The judges give you their experience of the book, so I’d like the commentators to connect the decisions to trends and issues in the field of kidlit … instead of just saying whether they agree or disagree.

Liz B on Chime v Smoke, Drawing v  Again, Diagram v Wonderstruck, Gray v Chime, Memory v Life, and Timothy Rising from the Dead. Bookshelves of doom is “YESSSSSSSSSS!” for her champion. Brandy’s thoughts on the final four and the finalists. Reads for Keeps’ Round 3 Inklings. Sondy’s chanting Go, Zombie, Go! A Spectator’s Commentary, Week 3. And here’s one …SLJBotB Commentary….Better Late Than Never!

Tweets of the Week 

elockhart This is my round! Some of you WON’T LIKE the opener. RT @SLJsBoB: Chime vs Daughter of Smoke & Bone http://bit.ly/GTvgYL #sljbob12 rockinlibrarian @elockhart @SLJsBoB Well we’re peculiar in the same way, then. I haven’t read both books, but I at least agree with you on romance.  brandymuses This was a good one to wake up to. RT @SLJsBoB: Round 2, Match 2: Chime vs Daughter of Smoke and Bone KateCoombs13 @brandymuses @SLJsBoB I liked both books, but I’m with you on this one. What amazing writing! (I say, trying not to be spoilerish.) elizabethfama Good question hidden in @SLJsBoB‘s comments today: Does Briony being a witch make …

» Continue Reading: This Week’s Peanut Gallery

  Drawing from Memory by Allen Say Scholastic Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet Candlewick Judged by Ron Koertge

Pen vs. Brush

I drop two books on the table in the Turf Club. No big surprise. Bobby and I are always bringing things to read. We’re at the races four days a week, but we’re not degenerate gamblers. Sometimes an hour goes by before there’s something worth betting.

 Sammy, another regular, picks the books up. Weighs them. The cover of Mal Peet’s Life: An Exploded Diagram features a lethal-looking rocket. On Allen’s Say’s Drawing from Memory, a dreamy boy in a blue sweater and blue socks appears to be flying.

“What’s the deal?” Sam asks.

“I have to decide between them,” I tell him. “It’s like a match race.”

“Doesn’t seem fair. One of them is thin like a pizza; the other’s fat like a sandwich.”

“Mal Peet’s book starts during WWII and goes to 2001. That’s more like a five-course meal.”

“And the other one?”

“Allen Say’s life in 62 pages.”

Sam flips through Drawing from Memory. “It’s got pictures,” he says. “Has the other one got pictures?”

I shake my head.

Sam says, “Doesn’t sound fair to me.”

“They’re both really good.”

Sammy grunts. “So, do you like anybody in the first race?”

Just then Bob shows up. He drops his copy of Daily Racing Form, picks up Life: An Exploded Diagram and flips through it. “Bold historical sweep, epic in scale with keen insight …

» Continue Reading: Round 3, Match 2: Drawing from Memory vs Life: An Exploded Diagram

  Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys Philomel/Penguin Chime by Franny Billingsley Dial/Penguin Judged by Maggie Stiefvater

When I first agreed to be a judge for this, I thought it would be straightforward, but just in case, I immediately read up on previous battles. Strangely, many of the judges said things like “this was harder than I expected” or “unexpectedly complicated!” But the idea seemed simple. You read two books, and you like one of them better. You explain your thoughts in a coherent way, and then you retreat to your kitchen to make cookie dough.

But then it was my turn. And it turned out that I had read both of the about-to-battle books. I know that you’re thinking, yahtzee! Her job’s already done! Only it wasn’t. Because even though I’d read both of them (Between Shades of Gray on a plane from Chicago to Boston, and Chime while sitting on my sofa with a runny nose), I hadn’t been in a judging mindset when I did. I was just doing what readers do. You know. Reading. Moreover, my reading environment could have biased my feelings toward them. Everyone knows that having a runny nose is better than sitting in the middle seat of an airplane next to a man who’s just had tacos before take off. HOW COULD I TRUST MY PREVIOUS JUDGMENT? The simple answer: I couldn’t. So I read them again.

I picked Chime to read first, for reasons I’ll explain later. It’s a …

» Continue Reading: Round 3, Match 1: Between Shades of Gray vs. Chime

  Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet Candlewick Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick Scholastic Judged by Chris Lynch

School Library Journal, being the efficient operation that it is, had all four of the books from the previous round in this bracket sent to me before I got started. All four were still in play, and they want the judges to be able to get right out of the blocks when the time comes. My first reaction when all four had arrived was:

My goodness, there’s a lot of talent in the room.

Shortly thereafter, though, I got the word that two of the titles had been eliminated and I didn’t need to feel quite as intimidated and overwhelmed. My new feeling was:

My goodness, there’s a lot of talent in the room.

The two titles I had to judge were Brian Selznick’s WONDERSTRUCK and Mal Peet’s LIFE: AN EXPLODED DIAGRAM.

WONDERSTRUCK was the first one to emerge from the first round, and so we’ll start there. My lovely missus, who is an artist, checked out what I was up to, examining Selznick’s work in particular. We have a running gag in my house about being jealous of creative artists who are gifted with both lavish and varied talents. She spent a bit of time with both the text and the artwork of WONDERSTRUCK.

“So, you gonna hate him?” she says. “Well, I’m gonna try,” I says.

Happy to report that I failed miserably in this attempt. Combining two …

» Continue Reading: Round 2, Match 4: Life: An Exploded Diagram vs Wonderstruck

  Drawing from Memory by Allen Say Scholastic Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai HarperCollins Judged by Jewell Parker Rhodes

Memory & Resilience: Inside Out & Back Again and Drawing from Memory

Oh, my! What a terrific, imaginative battle! Both books completely captivated me—evoking foreign landscapes, traumatic wars, immigration, and the extraordinary resilience of youth. With such similarities between Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai and Drawing from Memory by Allen Say, I simply wanted to throw my hands up and declare a “truce.”

And, yet, Inside Out & Back Again and Drawing from Memory, both by award-winning authors, are so distinctively different in point of view, tone, and narrative approach, that I felt awe. Two champions battling with finesse!

Both tales are rooted in biography. Lai fictionalizes her childhood. Say creates a visual and literary memoir.

Sifting through personal experience to create art is never easy. The possible pitfalls are many: emotional indulgence, inability to empathize with perspectives beyond the central character, and, most importantly, the failure to elevate memories to art, imbued with human truths for a new generation. Both authors brilliantly outflank these problems.

Inside Out & Back Again tells the story of Hà, a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl, who flees with her family during the fall of Saigon to foreign Alabama. “No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama,” says Hà. Through layered, complex characterization, Lai breathes …

» Continue Reading: Round 2, Match 3: Drawing from Memory vs Inside Out and Back Again