A Different Kind

of March Madness

This month, as we prepare for the coming of spring to Vermont, madness is all around us.  In college basketball, we have the NCAA tournament.  In movie theaters, we have the March Hare in the latest remake of Alice in Wonderland.  And in the world of children's literature, we have a group of adults trying to drum up excitement and passion among kids for... the marriage of Charles and Emma Darwin?

Welcome to the 2010 version of the "Battle of the Kids' Books," brought to us by our friends at School Library Journal.  In a culture that cannot leave well enough alone, it's the latest mashup between things some people love and other things that some other people love.  In this case, it's not Jane Austen and zombies; it's kids' books and competition.  A heralded group of adult writers and readers daily weighs in on two predetermined books, judging one the victor in a literary smackdown.  But if the first round is any indication of what's to come, no one really gets hurt here.

With that being said, reading how people who make a living from tales well told evaluate the work of others can be very instructive.  In today's first round bout, the time that Jim Murphy takes to examine book covers of Claudette Colvin and Charles and Emma shows, for better or for worse, how a good or bad cover can lead to impressions of what's inside.  Just like a CBS sports commentator will touch on the tough road that two teams have had to reach the NCAA tourney, Murphy praises both books extensively.  In the end, though it is not the nature of children's literature (while it may be in publishing), a winner had to emerge, and Murphy gives his verdict at the buzzer. 

This is an odd affair.  But we make choices all the time, and in some ways this is nothing more than that.  Now, if kids were making the choices, giving the superb reasoning, and getting the limelight, that would be something.  After all, can't kids battle for their books?