Battle of the Books

Well, we are in the last days of our Battle of the Books and the gloves are off! Which title is our school's favorite? The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins or My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult? The two library aides who suggested these books are getting crazier by the minute. I think I may need a lock on the ballot box!

This craziness came about because of my following the School Library Journal's second annual Battle of the Books. When I was looking for a contest for School Library Month, one of my student aides suggested our own battle, with each aide suggesting their favorite books. We started with 12 and had 4 brackets.

Bracket 1: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows with The Hunger Games beating out my favorite wizard. I was very worried that the 2 Harrys would split the vote, but HG won fair and square.

Bracket 2: Generation Dead, Catcher in the Rye, and Geektastic. More people knew Catcher in the Rye so it moved on.

Bracket 3: The Host, The Book Thief, and My Sister's Keeper. This one I was not as sure of. The Host would get many of the Twilight votes (no Twilight because my one student aide just wanted it in there to increase his chance of winning, not because it was his actual favorite) but My Sister's Keeper has been extremely popular. And MSK received the most votes to enter the semi-finals.

Bracket 4 - Gone With the Wind, Unwind, and Johnny Got His Gun. Unwind ran away with this round.

The Semi-Finals:
The Hunger Games easily beat Catcher in the Rye.
My Sister's Keeper was ahead of Unwind, though not for lack of trying by my student aides to influence votes. Ahh, politics in action.

The Final Round!
Voting ends tomorrow and my two student aides are actively lobbying for votes, even wanting to take ballots out around the school. This could get interesting! I must say this has been my most popular contest yet with over 150 people voting in at least one of the rounds. All students who vote are entered into a drawing for no library late fees until the end of School Library Month 2011 which is a popular prize.

Hopefully I'll be able to survive the voting madness!