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

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.

Round 1, Match 5

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.

Round 1, Match 6

Liar and Spy vs. Splendors and Glooms

Judge: Franny Billingsley

Winner: Splendors and Glooms

Liar and Spy

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.

Comments

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Winter 2026 Book Boxes

Looking for a new read? We’ve got you covered! Check out one of our Book Boxes for kids ages 9-12. Each Book Box contains a book to check out, as well as envelopes filled with fun surprises that you can open as you read along. We have two new books available to check out! Boxes can be put on hold through the library website, and can picked up at the Circulation Desk. Our One Dead Spy and The Case of the Missing Marquess Book Boxes will each be available to pick up from December 19, 2025 through December 30, 2026. Each child aged 9-12 can check out each Book Box once during that time, so get one now to read during winter break, or wait until summer and check it out then! One Dead Spy By Nathan Hale New York : Amulet Books, 2012. 127 pages. Comic. This graphic novel tells the tale of Nathan Hale, one of America's first spies, who was hanged for espionage in 1776. But in this version, just before he is set to be hanged he is eaten by a giant book, which he uses to explain the revoluti...

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