Today's winner

Marcelo in the Real World was up against Marching for Freedom in The Battle of the Kids' Books today.  These two books have very little in common, except the first four letters of each title.  One book deals with a fictional autistic teen's struggles to enter the "real" world, deal with father-son conflict, betrayal and love.  The other book describes the struggles of real black teens who stood up for Civil Rights in the eight months that led to the march on Selma. 

Struggling teens - that must be the other common thread in these two books.

So which book did Gary Schmidt, the judge du jour, pick to go to the next round in this contest?  And who came up with this match-up, anyway?  The winner is.....Marching for Freedom by Elizabeth Partridge.  Schmidt's reason is elegantly simple.  Read his opinion of both books here.http://sljbattleofthebooks.com

We get the weekend off, which is just time enough for everyone to read the next contestants, Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson and A Season of Gifts by Richard Peck.  Fiction against fiction on Monday.   Both books are worth reading and I will be happy with either title moving on to the next round.