March Madness, or The Big Dance

So "March Madness" refers to the crazy popular college men's basketball single-elimination championship tournament held each spring; it's one of those quivery-excitement thing that people (well, at least sports-type people) look forward to every year.  AND, as I just learned, March Madness is also apparently known as "the Big Dance."  Which, let's be honest, sounds a lot less awesome than March Madness (although I do find it completely entertaining to imagine big dudes hanging around, talking about "the Big Dance").

Anyway, this March APL is going to be hosting its own glorious, utterly nerdy version of March Madness, but instead of rounds eliminating basketball teams, our tournament will be a most awesome book for 7th graders and up championship.  Each week, teens get to go online and vote for their favorite among the 16 selected books that are pitted against one another until the whole thing culminates in one winner.

      

The bracket, by the way, is up on the wall behind the computers in the APL Zone, and it looks AWESOME.  Like, seriously epic, and I'm totally not just saying that because my boyfriend put it up and it took him 7 hours on a Saturday when we could've been home watching the IT Crowd or Sherlock or out shopping in Des Moines.

So on to the books.  Some of the winners are going to be hard to pick: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is up against The Graveyard Book.  The Giver is playing against The Westing Game. Seriously?  Seriously?  Tough call.  I'm glad I'm not the one who has to choose, though I think I'll have fun trying to predict each elimination rounds' winner.

Will post the link to the online voting when it's available...In the meantime, definitely brush up on some of the books on the list linked above and get ready to vote at the beginning of March when the polls officially open (sounds dramatic much?)!