This is definitely not by design — but by pure chance and circumstances: two heavily illustrated novels are paired against each other in another highly anticipated semifinal match!

Having advanced to the semi-finals, two middle grade historical novels face off in a nail-biter of a match!

“I was fortunate to have two great books to read and select from. I thoroughly enjoyed both.” Which does Judge Mariko Tamaki choose?

Which of the two page-turner books about boys on internal and external quests, with beautiful language and strong reader appeal will move on to the semi-finals?

In the second match of Round 2, High school theater of the absurd goes against the final installment of the sibling saga set against the backdrop of the tumultuous 60s America.

Judge Donnelley has to make a choice between two stories that drive her “out to the borderlands – a lawless patch of literary scrub – and boot me out of the car with no GPS, no tattered road atlas, not even a cheap plastic compass.”