Monstrous March Madness

I know that a March Madness Tournament at the library is not an original idea, but I don't know where I first heard of it, so I'm sorry I can't give the credit that is due. Nevertheless, I wanted to conduct my own March Madness Tournament this month, but didn't feel like NCAA tourney time was long enough for book voting (I have a TON of after school kids on Wednesdays which would boost my numbers a little if I ran the voting rounds weekly). I spent some time making the bracket and getting my hands on all of the books I wanted to use. I used books from Best of 2012 lists and the Caldecott winners.

I chose to use picture books so that all of the books could be available for the kids to read when they were voting and filling out brackets. This is the first time I've ever done a "hands off" display (and I don't like it). There are four rounds so it will take all of March to run. I had twenty kids fill out brackets (and one adult and two librarians). After one week of voting, I had 10 voters the first week and tomorrow will tally up the votes for round two. Their incentive is a $15 Walmart gift card that I've had sitting on my desk for months.

I wanted a fun Music History Month display and the idea of floating notes and rainbows wasn't tripping my trigger. I chose to use a popular misquoted quote to enhance my display. The original quote is "Musick has charms to sooth the savage breast." -William Congreve. I've always heard it as "Sooth the savage beast" so I made a ginormous beast to pop onto the top of the display. Guess what, I've had the books up on display for two weeks now with no takers and I had two different groups of after school kids looking at my display items today (on its first day up)!

I'm probably the only one who appreciates this display, but that's okay. Its eye catching and is getting the kids looking at what is on it!

PS I'm not sure exactly where I got the idea that is was Music History Month from, but I can't seem to find it anywhere now. So it will just be March History Month at our library!