Drawing from Memory vs. The Grand Plan to Fix Everything: First, I think judge Barbara O’Connor really liked Grand Plan more than I did. She found such wonderful, lovely things to say about it. (Though we both had the same movie-reaction to the book. Interesting.) But, in the end, (even though she had more to say about Grand Plan), Drawing from Memory takes the win, “For the teamwork of art and words and for the total experience of this book.” I called it (mostly because I didn’t think Grand Plan was strong enough to win), though I do need to read Drawing from Memory now.

Heart and Soul vs. Inside Out and Back Again: I have to admit that while I liked Inside Out, I didn’t love it. I didn’t get what judge Sarah Weeks got out of it: “When I closed the book, I did so reluctantly. I felt that I had tasted ripe papaya, and glutinous rice—as well as the salty tears of the endearing main character, Ha. I loved every minute of reading this book.” But I did guess that Inside Out would be the winner, so I’m not disappointed with Weeks’s decision here.

Life: An Exploded Diagram vs. A Monster Calls: I just finished A Monster Calls last weekend (review forthcoming… sometime…) and was floored by the book. So when Lauren Myracle says, ” I pick Life: An Exploded Diagram, because of its clean and absolute ability to pierce my heart and tear my brain to pieces, in the best of all possible ways.” And that it pulled her in: “I did not predict that Life would suck me in as hard and fast and with such slurpy ferocity as it did, especially not on the tail of Monster.” How could I be upset that Monster (my prediction, by the way) loses in a face of comments like that? I can’t. Another one for the hold list at the library.

Okay for Now vs. Wonderstruck: Oh, my heart breaks. Really. I adored Okay for Now, and really thought it stood a chance against Wonderstruck. But, obviously, I missed something in that book, because it beat out Okay for Now to move on. Jeff Kinney’s a nice guy, but he just broke my heart. *sigh* Now the question is: will the two art books  meet up?

Round 2, Match 1 Amelia Lost vs. Between Shades of Gray: After reading last week’s first round decision about Between Shades of Gray, I started to wonder if this was the sort of novel that could win it all… after reading this second round decision, in which it handily beat Amelia Lost — judge Marc Aronson writes, “As books, they are equally well-crafted and worth reading. But Ruta’s novel does for the destruction of Lithuania what, say, Paula Fox and Tom Feelings did for the Middle Passage—gave our readers access to a haunting, tragic, and crucially important part of our common past.” — I am seriously considering getting behind this little book as an ultimate winner. Then again, it has to get by Maggie Stiefvater, and will be up against one of two great YA fantasies. That will be interesting. At any rate, it’s screaming “READ ME!”

I can’t wait to see who else makes it to the semifinals!