Let the Battle Begin!

I have about 30 kids signed up for Battle of the Books this year, and they are all busily working their way through the 20 titles on the Battle list.  So far, my favorites would be Restart  by Gordon Korman and Front Desk by Kelly Yang.  They both feature strong main characters and strong narrative voices.  In Restart, a popular school athlete suffers from amnesia due to head trauma, and discovers, as he struggles to re-learn his life, that he may have been popular, but he as definitely not well-liked or kind.  In fact, he was a bully.  The conflict between who he was and who he is becoming makes a really good read.  In Front Desk,  the main character is the daughter of immigrants, struggling to find a safe place to rebuild their lives.  How she helps her family make a place for themselves in an often hostile world is the basis of this novel.  Both provide plenty of opportunities for readers to deal with complex issues through entertaining stories.