Five rounds, 32 books, one winner. Librarians Debby Barnes and Jennifer Baskin have introduced a new level of March Madness: one that involves books and the “madness” of reading. 

The winner of the March Madness was “Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, announced Friday, April 1. The popularity of the book, according to Baskin, is what led the book to remain relevant for all these years, and one of the biggest factors that contributed to the book’s victory. 

“I pretty much knew that was going to be the winner from the get,” Baskin said. “I was kind of hoping that I would be surprised that [‘Hunger Games’] wasn’t the winner, but I understand why. It’s pretty popular, and a lot of people read that book, and it was their introduction to reading. That’s something that got them excited about reading, so it makes sense that they would still be excited about it. I think that book has held up, just sort of like ‘Harry Potter’, or ‘The Lightening Thief’. It holds up even when I read it as an adult, but I was still surprised that it was still going so strong.”

This version of “March Madness” involves choosing between a list of 32 books, pitted against each other in the typical “March Madness” bracket format. Baskin and Barnes together crafted a list of the most checked out books of all genres from the school library and decided to create a competition in which students get to vote for a book of their choice in each bracket. The winner of each of those brackets will then advance on and on until the final round, where the two books with the most votes are pitted against each other. Books from all genres, from classic to modern were selected, with each round gathering results.

“I was surprised at how well the classics did,” Baskin said. “They did really great, but honestly, looking at the statistics for the most checked out [books], the top four most checked out books are the ones that are at the top that are currently winning. Nothing too surprising, just because I can see the overall checkouts, so it makes sense that the ones that get checked out the most are the ones that are at the top of the chart. But I was definitely surprised that some books won; the book that I wanted to win got knocked out last week.”

The idea began as a result of the growing popularity among March Teacher Madness. Baskin said she went according to the whole ‘March Madness’ theme of the month, so she applied that to literature and reading. 

“I wanted to do something that was more engaging,” Baskin said. “It’s always fun to vote, but it also familiarizes you with those texts more, and what they’re about. If you keep looking at [the results] from week to week, and [certain books] are winning, you might be more encouraged to try that book out.”

According to Baskin, the first two rounds of the voting process went well. With a total of four rounds, students were engaged with the process. Books that are displayed on the chart are also available for checkout at the front.

“I’ll have people just pull [books] directly from that table,” Baskin said. “I’ve also had people checking them out, but then these are already the top requested anyway, so they’re already kind of more checked out. But I have seen kids who don’t normally check out those kinds of reads checking them out. I would say more engagement, and maybe even just more knowledge. It’s interesting how some of [the books] do well because they have more copies. If a book has been checked out a lot, the capability to check it out is a lot more if it’s available, so that kind of factored into the engagement. As a library assistant and librarian, it informs us on what we might want more copies of.”

Barnes and Baskin are preparing for the literary winner of the competition. When a book has won, it will be put on display at the library. 

“We might make a little chart that says what [the winner] is,” Baskin said. “Just for the purpose of knowing. If you’re coming in for a recommendation, that could be a part of it, so its more for [knowing].”

The goal behind the Library March Madness was to increase engagement with different kinds of books. Baskin said she wanted to familiarize student readers with more kinds of books, and provide an opportunity for them to easily find a new book to read.

“The goal was just familiarizing readers with more books,” Baskin said. “Those books are the top read for a reason, so they must be pretty good and identify with a lot of our readers. [Readers who read these books] are people your age, and from your same kind of background. If they like them, the chances are great that you might like them. If you’re not much of a reader, you don’t want to take chances on something that you could spend a lot of time just draining plot. This way, it’s just a way for you to get into reading without a lot of effort.”