The Tournament of Children's Books

While watching the NCAA basketball tournament last monthAnd crying because my Kentucky Wildcats missed the Big Dance this year I decided that this blog needed its own tournament. Over the next seven days 32 children’s books will battle for the coveted title of Writing Bout Reading’s Best Children’s Book of All Time! To start with, here's a look at how the books were selected, why your favorite book might have missed the field, how the books were seeded, and how the books will be judged.

The Selection Process: The 32 books included in the bracket were selected based on how much my 22 month old son seemed to enjoy them. Obviously books aimed at older children (Charlotte’s Web, The Narnia Books, Harry Potter, etc.) were sent packing and encouraged to try again in a few years. Classics that we do not yet own were also left hoping for an NIT bid (sorry The Giving Tree, Where the Wild Things Are, and what would have been one of my preseason favorites if we owned a copy, Grover and the Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum).

The Seeding Process: Once the 32 book field had been selected the books were sorted into four regions (Mother Goose, Dr. Seuss, Little Golden Books, and Good Night) and seeded 1-8. Seeds were based on each book’s Amazon bestseller list ranking. The overall #1 seed, The Very Hungry Caterpillar clocked in at #67 on Amazon while the final #8 seed, A Cuddle for Little Duck was ranked #5,307,777.

The Match-ups: Match-ups will be determined based on how much my son enjoys reading the book, the book's staying power (does my son still like it two months down the road), and how little the book burns me out when I’m required to read it over and over and over and over.

So without further adieu, here’s the field! Let the speculation begin! Who do you expect to make it to the Final Four? What potential match-ups are you looking forward to? What upsets do you think will happen? Tomorrow, the Round of 32 begins with first round games in the Mother Goose and Little Golden Books regions being decided.

Click here for a zoomable version!