At the beginning of this month, the Littleton High School Library started its own version of March Madness!
They picked 16 books at the beginning of March, with input from some teachers and students, and compiled them to pit them against each other. The 2 categories were realistic fiction and fantasy. The fantasy books they chose were: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R Tolkien, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, and Powerless by Lauren Roberts. And for realistic fiction: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.
In the library, they had it set up so everyone got to vote for which books won. There was a station with jars next to each book, and people got to put tokens in for whichever book they liked best. In the first rounds for fantasy, Six of Crows won against Powerless, Hunger Games against Divergent, Harry Potter over Twilight, and LotR over The Lightning Thief. And from that, we went down to SoC against Hunger Games and LotR against Harry Potter. In a shocking turn of events, LotR won when paired against Harry Potter! When SoC and Hunger Games were pitted against each other, Hunger Games pulled ahead, leaving us with the ultimate match-up of The Hunger Games and The Lord of the Rings!
And now looking at realistic fiction. We had The Hate U Give against Speak, The Kite Runner and The Outsiders, Wuthering Heights and The Book Thief, and The House on Mango Street against The Fault in Our Stars. Between those pair-ups, we were left with The Hate U Give against The Outsiders, and The Book Thief against The Fault In Our Stars. And similarly, like fantasy with a great match-up of famous books, The Outsiders won when paired beside The Hate U Give! And with the final tally between The Book Thief and The Fault In Our Stars, The Book Thief pulls ahead, leaving us with The Outsiders vs. The Book Thief!
Ms. Barbara Donahue was interviewed about the overall decision-making over the whole competition. She talked about getting input from other staff and students on the books they enjoyed or recommended for the project. When asked about how she chose the genres to be pitted against each other, she said, “Well, because fantasy traditionally from middle school to high school is always the most popular genre, and I know that classes have to — get to read them, and other people like romance or just more realistic fiction, so yeah!” It was a very exciting time for people to be able to have a game to play right as they came into the library. Donahue mentioned how she was always encouraging people to vote if they hadn’t already. She talked about how March is such a short month when we lose one week to Spring Break, so she wanted to make it as “action-packed” as possible!
Donahue was asked how she felt the event’s overall outcome was. She reflected, “ I have never seen so many students talk about books! It’s so fun to see people checking it out and seeing who’s winning.” Let’s say this was a win for the LHS Library! Stay tuned for the Friday before Spring Break when we reveal the winner of March Madness: Book Edition!
