The Sweet 16 — of Books!

The NCAA college basketball's annual March Madness tournament is well underway. This year, just like every other year, my husband and I strategically filled in our brackets in pursuit of bragging rights.

But this year our kids wanted to get in on the excitement.

Having little to no experience with basketball, however, meant selecting the best teams was a bit over the heads of my little ones, who are just 4 and 6. So we decided to make our very own 16-seed bracket with something they do know and love -- books!

We had a great time filling out the bracket. The kids predicted which book would win and debated over the winning book in each contest. Sometimes the winner was clear cut, but sometimes it wasn't!

While books was a great place to start for our family, the possibilities here are endless! You can try a bracket with movies, toy cars, candies, or anything else in which you can come up with 16 contenders!

Supplies needed:

• Bracket (Click here for your FREE printable bracket!)
• Books!

Instructions:

1. Pick 16 book contenders. 
2. List each contender on the outermost line of the bracket.
3. Read each pair of books and choose the better of the two to move on to the next round.
4. Continue the process until only one book -- the winner! -- remains.  

CLICK HERE to get your free printable bracket!

Want to know which book won our family bracket? After a tough competition, the top spot went to Good Night, Good Night, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker! Now comes the question: Can the book defend its title next year?

Sarah Hauge is the publisher of Macaroni Kid Englewood-Greenwood Village-Centennial, Colo.

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