“I Verse You”
Head-to-head competition in literature isn’t anything new, but the idea of pitting two characters/things against each other in the title of a book is a continuing trend in children’s literature (and perhaps literature in general).
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While it’s far from the first book to bring out the “vs.”, I think the book that really helped put it into the zeitgeist was Chris Barton and Tom Lichtenheld’s popular Shark vs. Train, released in 2010. The growth of the “versus” title makes sense – it’s an intriguing set up. What are they fighting about? Who would win?
In recent years (and upcoming in 2014) the “versus” have continued:
And possibly my favorite:
Want further proof of the rise of the “versus”? Check out this data from Google’s Ngram Viewer, which tracks word usage in books:
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About Travis Jonker
Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.
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May I add Athlete vs. Mathlete by W. C. Mack and, on the YA end, Fat Boy vs. the Cheerleaders by Geoff Herbach?
You may! I’m not well-versed in YA, so it’s good to get your additions.
Count me as one not overly thrilled with this direction, despite recognizing a certain degree of inevitable popularity (and I do have some of these in my classroom and like several of them).
I NEED THE OBAMA/ROMNEY PAPER DOLLS. How do I miss these things?
How about George vs. George: The American Revolution as seen from both sides? or Fly Guy vs. the FlySwatter?
Not to be a curmudgeon, but the way I understand it, your Ngram kind of contradicts your point. It says “versus” has been on the rise since about 1950, peaked in 2000, and has dropped off recently.