The CHS library held a Book March Madness, highlighting and ranking some of the most popular reads of this year.

The inspiration for this unique set up had an obvious correlation to the annual NCAA single elimination tournament bracket, but it also came from another book loving teacher.

“A teacher in Frederick County shared the PowerPoint she was doing with her middle school students, and I thought, yeah, let’s do that,” said Ms. Donna Mignardi, CHS librarian.

A big part of this was making sure to pick books that most students have read.

When it came to deciding what books to include in the brackets and how to organize them, Mrs. Mignardi said, “I made little pictures of books and brought them up to 9 and 10 grade classes to make mini brackets.”

The final four of this year’s bracket included Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, One of us is Lying by Karen M. McManus, The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas, and Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin.

The reigning champ of this year (queue drumroll) was One of us is Lying by Karen M. McManus! This book is a young adult thriller that goes into the investigation of four students at Bayview high who were tied to the murder of a classmate who mysteriously went into anaphylactic shock in detention.

Due to the success of this year’s Book March Madness, it is likely to become a CHS tradition in one form or another. “I will do it again next year, maybe on the website, but it will happen,” said Ms. Mignardi.

Students and staff of CHS thoroughly enjoyed voting on some of the most popular reads of the year. Stay tuned to theCHScourier.com to see more book reviews and possibly find a new great summer read!