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Display - SLJ Battle of the Books, Round 1, Match 7 & 8

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 7
Moonbird vs. Seraphina
Judge: Marie Lu
Winner: Seraphina

Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor b95
By Phillip Hoose
Documents the survival tale of an intrepid shorebird who has endured annual migrations between Argentina and the Canadian Arctic throughout the course of a long lifetime while his species continues to decline.

Seraphina
By Rachel Hartman
In a world where dragons and humans coexist in an uneasy truce and dragons can assume human form, Seraphina, whose mother died giving birth to her, grapples with her own identity amid magical secrets and royal scandals, while she struggles to accept and develop her extraordinary musical talents.
No Crystal Stair vs. The One and Only Ivan
Winner: No Crystal Stair
In this work of historical fiction, Nelson tells the story of a man with a passion for knowledge and of a bookstore whose influence has become legendary.
By Katherine Applegate
When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out circus-themed mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall, he decides that he must find her a better life.

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