SOLSC 14/31: March Book Madness

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, Melanie, and Lanny

for hosting this meeting place each day in March

and for nurturing our writing lives.

If it's Tuesday afternoon, then you'll find me at my former middle school talking books, sharing books, reading books, and eating brownies or cookies with an incredible group of students.  Some of these students have been coming for three years (ever since I retired and decided to start an after school book club).  

We begin the year with students choosing titles for book groups  from our school literature circle collection.  Then we transition to reading Newbery possibilities for several months in preparation for the announcement of the Newbery award in January.  In February we focus on book groups for African American History Month. 

And then March finds us participating in March Book Madness.  Even though the voting is closed for the Elite Eight (winners will be announced tomorrow morning for the Final Four), you can scroll down the page to see the brackets and book trailers for the middle grade novels in this year's tournament focused on The New Classics.  

Here are the results so far from online voting, shown in blue.  When the results from our book club, Books, Brownies, and Beyond (BBB), differ from the online results, that result is shown in red. 

Round One Sweet Sixteen

Roller Girl vs. Counting by 7s

Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library vs. Sisters

(BBB - Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library)

Brown Girl Dreaming vs. The Honest Truth

(BBB - Brown Girl Dreaming)

Echo vs. A Night Divided

(BBB - Echo)

The War That Saved My Life vs. Booked

Fish in a Tree vs. Pax

(BBB - Fish in a Tree)

The Fourteenth Goldfish vs. El Deafo 

Absolutely Almost vs. Crenshaw

Round Two, Elite Eight

Counting by 7s vs. Sisters
(BBB - Counting by 7s)

The Honest Truth vs. A Night Divided 

The War That Saved My Life vs. Pax
(BBB - The War That Saved My Life)

El Deafo vs. Crenshaw

We split the results again, just like we did in round one.  Watch for a future post that discusses our results and a padlet that allows students to respond regarding the books that have been eliminated.    

Last week, we spent our book club hour having a round table discussion of all sixteen titles.  Someone defended each title, explaining why it should win its particular bracket.  

This week we created a bulletin board to showcase the brackets and results so far for March Book Madness.  It was a team effort and we're proud of the result!  In the second picture, we managed to coax the boys into the picture (one had already left) and another teacher stopped by so that Ms. Bowman (librarian from KCLS who co-sponsors our book club) and I could join the group.  Also note that we had added the title to the board by the time we snapped the last picture.  All in all, a great Tuesday afternoon at Books, Brownies, and Beyond!

This  post is cross posted to Sweet Reads,

a place for me, the members of our after school book club,

and interested readers to share the books we are reading,

booklists, and other book related activities.