In one of the most enjoyable exchanges of wit, wisdom, and (s)wordplay to be found in our field, several worthy children’s literature figures came together for almost a month of debate about which book among 16 stellar 2008 contenders would emerge as the crème-de-la-crème in SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books. Today, the last title standing was crowned:

And the Winner Is….

I won’t spoil it for you, especially since Lois Lowry’s final judgment essay, "Cop-Out," is glorious, leading you to the victor in an amusingly circuitous, pretend-vindictive trail of reasoning. For those one or two of you who may not have followed this prodigious battle, the judges included Roger Sutton, Jon Scieszka, Elizabeth Partridge, Meg Rosoff, Rachel Cohn, Ellen Wittlinger, Tamora Pierce, Ann Brashares, Tim Wynne-Jones, Coe Booth, John Green, Nancy Werlin, Linda Sue Park, Chris Crutcher and Lois Lowry.

As in a tennis tournament, there were rounds, and judges faced the daunting task of pitting these 16 brilliant books against one another:

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves, by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick)
Ways to Live Forever, by Sally Nicholls (Arthur A. Levine / Scholastic)
The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins)
The Trouble Begins at 8: Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West, by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon & Schuster)
Washington at Valley Forge, by Russell Freeman (Holiday House)
Here Lies Arthur, by Philip Reeve (Scholastic)
Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan (Knopf)
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart (Hyperion)
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, by Kadir Nelson (Hyperion)
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic)
The Porcupine Year, by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins)
Graceling, by Kristin Cashore (Harcourt)
The Underneath, by Kathi Appelt (Atheneum)
The Lincolns: A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary, by Candace Fleming (Random House/Schwartz & Wade)
Nation, by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)

Is that list a book lover’s paradise, or what?!

As Lois Lowry said, in her aforementioned tour-de-force essay, "They were all winners. Please, could we just agree on that at the outset? Well-written, brilliantly researched, handsomely designed. I wish I’d written each one of them…. So it is clear that the judging of this tournament is completely subjective. Criteria don’t exist when you weigh gold against gold."

If you haven’t already, treat yourself to the archives of each face-off and its debate and comments. The entire SLJ Battle of the Kids’ Books is an encapsulation of what is so fantastic about our field — the sheer exuberance of great minds at work and the books they produce and the quality of their critiques, and all the snark and humor and insight and generosity and beauty inherent therein.

So, though I am not an official judge, I pronounce the brains behind this endeavor Uber-Masters of New Contests, and hereby crown them with thanks.

P.S. At our store, we made a display of the contenders and a sign using the very funny SLJ Battle Logo, and have sold a lot of books from it! The display can also serve double duty as a place for great summer reads.