JUDGE – SABAA TAHIR Some Writer! by Melissa Sweet Houghton Mifflin Harcourt The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon Random House Generally I’m one of those people who snorts at the idea of giving trophies to everyone. Losing builds character, I always say. (Ok, I don’t always say that, but it sounds like something I might […]

JUDGE – ELLEN OH Freedom in Congo Square By Carole Boston Weatherford, Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie Little Bee March: Book Three by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell Top Shelf Productions   I feel a great and heavy burden on my shoulders as I find myself trying to compare these two brilliant […]

    JUDGE – SARA FARIZAN The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge Abrams The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon Random House I was hesitant to take on this task because I’m a bit uncomfortable about pitting books against each other. Sure, it’s all in good fun, but the only winner here really is me for […]

JUDGE – CYNTHIA KADOHATA Some Writer! by Melissa Sweet Houghton Mifflin Harcourt When the Sea Turned to Silver by Grace Lin Little Brown   On the surface, Some Writer! and When the Sea Turned to Silver are utterly different books, one nonfiction and filled with details from author E.B. White’s real life, and one a fantastical […]

JUDGE – ELIOT SCHREFER Ghost By Jason Reynolds Simon & Schuster March, Book Three by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell Top Shelf Productions     The beauty of reading books is that they don’t have to duke it out afterwards. I can read me some Dragonlance Chronicles: Dragons of Winter Night on Saturday and […]

JUDGE – JAVAKA STEPTOE Freedom in Congo Square by Carole Boston Weatherford illustrated by R. Gregory Christie Little Bee When Green Becomes Tomatoes by Julie Fogliano illustrated by Julie Morstad Macmillan I like to think of these two books as pieces of music: One is like a work song, the other a classical concerto. In this way they are […]

  JUDGE – BRENDAN KIELY The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry Penguin The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon Random House What a difficult task! Of all the books to have paired together, here are two uniformly critically acclaimed, wildly successful and popular books, both Printz Honor finalists, one a National Book Award […]

JUDGE – NOVA REN SUMA  Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit Random House The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge Abrams After I finished the two books up in this round, I was left excited by the depths of imagination both of these authors created on the page. I’ll tell you what I look for as […]