From Roxanne:

In the past few years, some of our (Monica’s and my) students participated as Kid Commentators and shared with all BoB followers their exhilaration when the Judges agreed with them and their bitter disappointment when they found a particular decision out of sync with their love for one title over the other.  These young readers (GI, RGN, and NS) are now in 11th, 12th, and 9th grade and although RGN and NS will continue commenting on the Matches this year, Monica and I thought that it would be superbly fun to open up the field and get more young readers to follow and shadow BoB.

I sent out a call to my middle school students (6th to 8th grade) and more than a dozen responded. We met this morning and went over the basics of BoB.  They also had a chance to examine the sixteen contenders.  These new BoB Kid Judges will each read at least one pair of the contending titles and write up their own short statements and decisions which will then be posted in the Comments section for each Match.

We wish to see other schools and libraries to host such Fantasy BoB Events!  Please comment below if you are running a Fantasy BoB event or know some young readers that wish to read one or two pairings and write up their reasons for specific decisions.   We will contact you via the email address attached to your comment.

Now — here they are, our 2017 BoB Contenders in their First Round Match Pairs:

FREEDOM IN CONGO SQUARE FREEDOM OVER ME THUNDER BOY JR WHEN GREEN BECOMES TOMATOES GHOST THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON MAKOONS MARCH BOOK THREE SAMURAI RISING SOME WRITER! WET CEMENT WHEN THE SEA TURNED TO SILVER ANNA AND THE SWALLOW MAN THE LIE TREE THE PASSION OF DOLSSA THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR