Meet the 2011 Round 1 Judges: Part 2

Hey Book Battle Fans! 

Our Round 1 Judges have finished their frantic reading and have turned in their Top 10s.  So while I'm busy the next few days tallying up their decisions and organizing brackets, here's a chance to get to know a few more of the judges better.  If you missed the first Meet the Judges post, you can find it here. 

And now, some more of the totally amazing people who made this battle possible:

Pam from Bookalicious:
Pam blogs at Bookalicious and partners with her indie for events. Her house is an every growing grey goo of books. She lives in Northern California with her Dutch husband, her two kids and her awesome dog Jackie. When not blogging Pam can be found at the beach reading, baking horrendously ugly cupcakes or putting together an event for bloggers to get to know each other better. Pam believes she has gotten very good at speaking about herself in the third person.

Kristen from Bookworming in the 21st Century (Kristen is another return judge this year!):
Kristen is an Elementary School Media Specialist as well as a YA Book Blogger. She has a wonderful and supportive husband who deals with her obsession with books, even if he constantly complains of tripping over stacks of them and claims she has a serious problem. When Kristen took her hubby to the library to get all of these book battle books, he asked what she was thinking and she only responded that it was for "a blog thing" and he just nodded his head. Kristen was a strange little girl who played school and library with her older sister and had a card catalog system on notecards and would pretend to check out all of her books. While her older sister was always the teacher, Kristen was always the librarian. I guess she knew then that she couldn't grow up and do anything else that didn't involve books.

Andrea from Loud Words and Sounds (Andrea also designed our blog button this year):
I'm a high school senior actively involved in the music department and many other organizations at my school. Other than loving to read and play clarinet, I love writing and I'm currently working on a paranormal book called Conversions. When I decided to start blogging I wasn't sure what to do or who to follow, and then I found some blogs that helped me through the beginning process. And now here Loud Words and Sounds is (even if I'm going through a lull period right now because of personal reasons). It basically features YA and sometimes both Manga and Adult books, but also music too! I plan on majoring in both Business Administration and Secondary Education when I move into the college dorms of a beautiful campus this fall so that I can teach Applied Technology later on in life. I love the idea of this years battle because I know some very great books that are always over looked, and one of my favorites is on the master list too! I can't wait to see what the Round Two Judges do with the list they're given!

Erika from Moonlight Book Reviews:
Hello everyone! My name is Erika and my book blog is Moonlight Book Reviews. I love reading and have been in trouble by multiple teachers for reading in class. I currently have a TBR pile that is taller than me, and I am running out of shelf space. I am seventeen and a Junior in High School. I live in Michigan where the weather is unpredictable. For example last week the temperature was 60 Monday, and there was 5 inches of snow on Wednesday! The YA Book Battle Best Overlooked Book, is such a phenomenal topic. For there are a lot of books out there that in my opinion need more attention for they are AMAZING! So I am thrilled and enjoying my time as a Round 1 judge!!

Meet the 2011 Round 1 Judges: Part 1

I put a lot of work into organizing the YA Bloggers Book Battle.  But I couldn't do that work alone.  I'm very blessed to have a lot of very talented volunteers on my side this year (we had over 50 people apply!).  Due to the sheer number of nominations this year, we added another round of judging to the festivities this year.  These Round 1 judges are currently tearing through the list of around 80 nominations, and they are doing a fantastic job! 

This feature is intended to introduce these magnificent volunteers and thank them for all their hard work.  Today, we're meeting four of the Round 1 judges, but keep an eye on the for future introductions too.  So without further ado, let's get to know some great bloggers a little better!

Natalie from Mindful Musings (You may recognize Natalie from last year's battle.  We're happy to have her back this year!)
My name is Natalie, and I'm a junior in college who's majoring in English Literature and minoring in Spanish. My blog, Mindful Musings, focuses heavily on all genres of YA fiction, so I'm super excited to be participating in the Book Battle as a judge again this year! The fact that this year's theme is Best Overlooked Book is awesome, and I'm hoping that the Book Battle will bring lots of new publicity to books that have yet to step into the spotlight.

Stephanie at Bookworm1858:
I am a soon-to-be college graduate (!) who has used blogging as relaxation from schoolwork. Although I read many genres, YA holds a special place in my heart and I've loved getting to explore its subgenres and virtually meeting others who love YA through blogging. I'm really excited about the battle this year because I missed most of it last year. As a Round 1 Judge, I've fallen in love with some amazing books that I probably would have never known about.

Mouseprints from Thick and Thin Things
I grew up in 5 different countries in Africa (Chad, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, The Gambia, and Lesotho), from shortly after birth until I left at 18 to go to university, and am so grateful to my parents that I had that opportunity. That experience shaped my life, especially when it comes to reading. I am passionate about good books: any knowledge that has stuck with me, I learned either from reading a good book or through first-hand experience.  After graduating from university, I joined the U.S. Coast Guard and served honorably for 4 years.  I married a fellow Coastie who served NO BOAT TIME (scandalous!) He was a crew chief on HH-60 helos. Now he flies a desk as a Project Manager for a building automations company.  Through some careful planning, I get to stay home with three amazing daughters (Olivia, Karina, and Susanna) and learn about whatever floats our boat.  I blog at Thick and Thin Things about books that my children and I are reading, and some (not much) of the etcetera of our lives.

Kailia at Reading the Best of the Best:
My name is Kailia and I’m 16. I love to read and write and I hope to one day have a book published. When I’m not reading I’m usually hanging out with friends or watching a movie or writing. I started Reading the Best of the Best because I loved to read and I loved sharing my thoughts about the books with other people.

Lets give our judges all a huge round of applause!