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Display - SLJ Battle of the Books, Round 1, Match 5 & 6

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By Lauren
School Library Journal’s Battle of the Kids’ Books is a competition among 16 of the very best books for young people of the year, judged by some of the biggest names in children’s books.

 
Jepp, Who Defied the Stars vs. Starry River of the Sky
Judge: Adam Gidwitz
Winner: Starry River of the Sky

Jepp, Who Defied the Stars
By Katherine Marsh
Jepp, a teenage dwarf living in 16th century Europe, leaves home to seek his destiny.
(Young adult fiction)

Starry River of the Sky
By Grace Lin
An innkeeper's chore boy discovers that a visitor's stories hold the key to returning the moon to the Starry River of the Sky.

Liar and Spy vs. Splendors and Glooms
Winner: Splendors and Glooms
By Rebecca Stead
Seventh-grader Georges adjusts to moving from a house to an apartment, his father's efforts to start a new business, his mother's extra shifts as a nurse, being picked on at school, and Safer, a boy who wants his help spying on another resident of their building.

Splendors and Glooms
By Laura Amy Schlitz
When Clara vanishes after the puppeteer Grisini and two orphaned assistants were at her twelfth birthday party, suspicion of kidnapping chases the trio away from London and soon the two orphans are caught in a trap set by Grisini's ancient rival, a witch with a deadly inheritance to shed before it is too late.
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