The most recommended competition books

Well, I haven’t made it to the last book in the series yet but I’m about to begin just as soon as I get off of this computer.

I loved America’s story, but Eadlyn has more spunk and independence. I loved seeing how she handled whatever came her way. Her strength is a huge highlight of the story.

One day, I was simply scrolling on TikTok…though my life was changed when I stumbled across one of Lauren’s TikToks. She shared her writing journey, and I was immediately hooked.

This book is everything I could’ve wished for in a fantasy romance and so much more. I’ll admit my expectations weren’t that high, but wow, was I blown away. The writing was easy to get into and flowed nicely, the characters were the type to stick with you long after you finished, and it included some of my favorite tropes: "Who did this to you?", royalty, forbidden love, and a fierce assassin who stops at nothing to avenge her family.

Overall, it was such an inspiring and addicting read. 

Writing as Richard Bachman, this quite short story (for King) is set in a future where once a year, young people are invited to take part in the ‘Long Walk.’ The premise is simple; you walk until you can’t walk any further. Keep above a certain speed limit or, after a couple of warnings, the soldiers who trail the walkers will shoot you dead. The winner is the one who survives. It sounds stupid, but, my God, when I first read it, I felt as if I had been on the walk with the characters you get to know. Horrifying simply because of the skill of King’s writing in describing the feelings of utter exhaustion and terror along the way. Human horror at its peak.

On School Sports Day, an exuberant girl is already planning her celebration because she knows she is going to win. When she loses several competitions to another girl, she is anything but gracious as she makes excuses and decides sports aren’t her thing. She wants trophies and ribbons so she competes in a spelling bee and dance contest and loses – to the same competitor! Our narrator is mad but when she sees her nemesis lose and happily congratulate the winner, she begins to understand that winning isn’t everything.

Filled with humor and whimsy, this is a book where children can easily identify good and bad sportsmanship as they come to realize that doing their best is what really matters. It also shows that everyone has special talents – they just need to practice to get better.

You can’t get much more food-oriented in science fiction than a novel called The Hunger Games, and true to its name, food and food politics play a central role in the book’s theme. The book’s author, Suzanne Collins, uses juxtaposition and food politics throughout the series to highlight the difference between the haves and the have-nots. While all the books in the Hunger Games series highlight these discrepancies, it’s Collins’s second book Catching Fire where the differences are most pronounced. The feast in the Capitol, along with its potions to induce vomiting (and by extension, encourage more eating), stands out in particular: The reaction of the book’s main character, Katniss Everdeen, herself a poor girl from the Seam of District 12 makes this scene both comical and revolting.

Told in alternating points of view by several characters as they compete in a national competition to find the tastiest confection in the country, this book lets the reader into the minds of all the main competitors. The enemy isn’t really the enemy once we get to know their feelings and thoughts. Being in a candy factory is an added bonus, as it’s such a unique location.

Phoebe Clapsaddle was a southern belle who lived on a ranch. This fiction book involves the Tumbleweed Gang who made an acquaintance with Phoebe after they visited her town. Appalled by their lack of manners and impolite speech, Phoebe decides they need her southern charm and culture. Phoebe teaches them lessons in riding, roping, and good manners. There are more Tumbleweed Gang adventures in other books, too. I know the author personally. Phoebe Clapsaddle’s name is in her family tree. Though she didn’t know if Phoebe was a southern belle cowgirl, the author loved her name so much, she wanted to write a book about her as a main character.

Speaking of classics, it seems like whatever Jan Brett publishes is an instant classic! Her detailed illustrations are luscious and worthy of pouring over time and again. Hoppi wants to decorate the winning egg so that he can be chosen to assist the Easter Rabbit in hiding eggs. As he views other rabbits’ eggs trying to figure out how he will decorate his, each rabbit gives him material he could use. Instead of trying to make a winning egg, Hoppi decides to make an egg he’s proud of. He comes upon a robin’s egg that fell out of the nest and keeps it warm. When Easter Bunny comes to choose the most special egg he chooses the robin egg – a surprise to all!

Chain Gang All Stars is the kind of book you read and you wish you wrote.

From its concept (a dystopian future in which corporate prisons coerce inmates to fight to the death in front of both live and televised audiences) to its larger-than-life characters (the indomitable Loretta Thurwar and the lightning-quick Hurricane Staxxx), the novel is all at once horrifying, darkly comic, and heartbreaking.

It’s one of those books with everything. Biting social commentary? Check. A complicated love story? Check. Longlisted for a National Book Award, I’d put my money on this novel to win.

Channi, despite her misfortunes, possesses an incredible dauntlessness to protect her younger sister, Vanna from a demon witch.

The sisters’ touching relationship which is at the heart of this story really resonated with me since I’m also the oldest child in a family of four siblings. Bonus: There’s plenty of fight-to-the-death action scenes amidst the backdrop of breathtaking, beautiful settings.