About

This is a global event that occurs throughout the month of March. Beginning March 1st, classes/families/individuals begin voting on a bracket of 64 books. Each week the field will narrow and by the end of March a single book will be the winner. Level of participation ranges from low (just voting) to high, connecting with others online, sharing photos, etc.

In the past few years we've been able to connect with authors through the project as well (including author interviews via Skype, and a message from R.J. Palacio last year when Wonder won). This project is flexible with technology too. Classes can vote online or on paper. My goal is a fun tournament that is "turn-key" for teachers. EVERYTHING they need will be provided.

In 2020 we had over 26,000 students registered from 46 states! We're looking forward to another record breaking year in 2021!

We’re looking forward to another record breaking year in 2020! Please read through the information below (for veterans not much has changed). Remember it is never too late to sign-up, so please keep inviting friends, family, and colleagues.

-Nate Balcom

History:

This is the 8th year I’ve held a March Book Madness Competition. In 2014 I ran the project with my own 5th grade class. In 2015 I facilitated it for 8 classrooms 2nd-5th at Starr Elementary. In 2016 we went global for the first time with 2,700+ students participating from 13 different states from coast to coast in grades K - 12! 2017 was an AMAZING success!! We had over 6,000 students participating from 27 states and from Australia! In 2018 we have over 7,000 students from 23 U.S. states, 2 Canadian provinces, and a school in Pakistan! They cast over 50,000 votes and made 2018 another record breaking year! In 2019 we broke records for number of students and number of states with over 13,000 students participating from 41 U.S. states, Canada and Malaysia! In 2020 we had over 26,000 students registered from 46 states as well as Pakistan, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, El Salvador, and the United Arab Emirates!

Step 1: Sign-up ☑

Step 2: Have your students nominate books either by you emailing me or them filling out the form here.

Step 3: Have loads of fun voting with us!! Who will win?!

Details:

• Individual students can vote via Google form which I will post on the site during the voting weeks.

• Your class can vote by the teacher filling in the vote totals on a shared Google Sheet, which I will share via email.

• Whether by class or individual, every student vote should count.

• All ages may vote: K-12.

• Teachers may vote too!

• Students do not need to have read the book to vote.

• Each book battle will have a graphic showing the cover. Some teachers like to read the description of the books from Amazon.

After each round I will update the official bracket. This will be on the wall in my cafeteria but also on the Global March Book Madness Webpage.

As always there will be two brackets this year. One for Picture books and one for Chapter Books.

All votes are due in by MIDNIGHT CST on the Friday after the voting week. This will give me time to generate the new bracket, graphics, and forms.

If you miss a vote or even a week that’s okay, jump back in with us at anytime.