(you can find the link to the bracket contest is at the end of this post)
This is the third year School Library Journal has run a Battle of the Kids' Books. Back in 2009 final round judge Lois Lowery chose The Hunger Games over M.T. Anderson's The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. II The Kingdom on the Waves. Last year final round judge Katherine Paterson choose Elizabeth Partridge's Marching to Freedom over Frances Hardinge's The Lost Conspiracy and Pamela S. Turner's The Frog Scientist. What will 2011 bring? Well today the judges for this year's contest were finally announced (titles were announced back in January) so we can start making some guesses (intelligent or otherwise).
Like last year I am running a bracket contest similar to the NCAA basketball bracket you fill out during March Madness. The rules are simple. Each contestant picks the winner of each round and receives points for correct guesses. First round matches are worth 1 point each, second round matches are worth 2 points each, third round matches are worth 4 points, and correctly guessing the winner earns you 8 points. You can also earn 5 points by guessing which book will return from the dead via the undead poll (which is open now and closes March 6). A perfect bracket can earn a total of 37 points.
Last year's Battle of the Books proved to be incredibly unpredictable as none of the 52 participants correctly predicted the winning book. Our eventual winner did however manage to earn 16 points.
Since the Battle of the Kids' Books matches will not begin until March 14, there is still plenty of time to get a hold of and read the books you haven't read. The bracket challenge will open today with the publication of this post and end on March 11 in order to give me time to check through each participant's bracket for errors and contact any participants if they need to make changes.
Bracket Challenge entry is free and there is no prize other than prideg. (unless of course someone out there wants to sponsor a prize in which case please email me!)
To enter simply fill out the googleform via the link below. You will be asked to enter your email address so that in the event of an error in your bracket (for example selecting a winner in a latter round match which you've already eliminated) I can contact you and get your true choice.
Unfortunately I am not nearly computer savvy enough to make the form resemble the actual bracket so I recommend printing the pdf from the official SLJ Battle of the Kids' Books website, filling it out, and then answering the form questions with your printed out bracket in hand.
At the end of each round of matches I will tally up the points and post the top scores. I will also post some round by round match up analysis and summary as once the battle begins so check back often.
To enter the contest click on the link below and answer each question. Please feel free to share the link with anyone who may also be interested in participating.
