The Atlantic recently featured Jerry Pallotta’s blockbuster Who Would Win? series, exploring how these animal battle books became a cultural phenomenon among young readers. Pallotta’s journey from insurance to children’s publishing began with his alphabet books, but it was the idea of pitting animals against each other—shaped like sports brackets—that captured kids’ imaginations.
“Kids don’t just read these books—they debate them, they argue, they create their own battles,” Pallotta told The Atlantic.
The article also shares how Scholastic helped bring the series to scale, packaging the books in ways that resonated with classrooms and libraries nationwide. Today, more than 21 million copies are in print, and the series continues to inspire children to learn science through suspenseful storytelling.
Read the full story on how Who Would Win? became the phenomenon it is today here: Who Would Win? Why kids can’t get enough of these battles to the death