April Madness

You've heard of March Madness; get ready for April Madness!

April Madness? What is that?

OK, I am the only one calling it that.

It is School Library Journal's Battle of the (Kids') Books. The Morning News and Powell's Books have been doing a Tournament of Books for five years now; and as Tea Cozy readers know, I've posted a time or two this year's inclusion of a YA book in the ToB.

In a nutshell: just as with March Madness, there is a bracket where sixteen books go one-on-one against each other. So the first round contains eight "book v book" rounds, with each round having an individual judge determine who "wins". That leaves eight books for a second round, with a new set of judges; four books for the third round, again, new judges; leading up to the last and final round.

The judges? Authors; with Lois Lowry being the final judge. Full details are at SLJ; including a BoB blog; a twitter account; and a handy-dandy printable form to use at your library, school, or office to for your BoB pool. Oh, and you can get the books at The Flying Pig bookstore, at a 30 % discount.