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2022 BOOK MADNESS

Book Madness 2022 - Book Bracket
Book Madness 2022 - Book Bracket

Garlic & the Vampire (11)

A-Okay (12)

Above you can see that we are on a quest to discover which book that we have read this semester will earn the honor of the TCH 236 2022 Book of the Year. The top 16 contenders will battle it out until only one book is left standing.

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So how will this work? You will be completing a series of challenges designed to promote a book. While this will begin as an individual effort, you will gradually be joined by others in a mission to defeat the competition. Each week, a group of middle schoolers (my 8th graders) will determine which books move on to the next stage of the competition.

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The Road to the Sweet 16

To start, each of you will select the best book you have read this semester. That's right! For this first week, you do not have to read a NEW book. Instead, your job is to sell your favorite book to middle school readers. You will do this by creating a book trailer that, like a movie trailer, captures an appealing idea, provides hints at the plot (but doesn't give anything away!) and uses a catchy tagline. You will also use images and audio to create your message. This is an opportunity to be creative and have fun. If you're bored, grab a few friends and film them as they act out important scenes. There are multiple online tools that you can use to create your trailer including Animoto, Biteable, and Powtoon. Windows MovieMaker and iMovie are also great tools.

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Once you have created your trailer, upload it to YouTube as an unlisted video. Title your video with the name of the book and your full name. Then, link or embed your video into your portfolio. Your trailer should be posted to your page by SUNDAY, April 3rd at 5pm. This will give me time to compile the videos and have them ready for our middle school judges (my students!) who will vote on Monday, April 4th. Then, be ready to get your next reading assignment and challenge once the results are in. 

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Working Toward the Elite 8

As we continue our quest to determine the best book of TCH 236 2022, we will next turn to another tool movie promoters use: the poster. Once our Sweet 16 results are in, I will assign you one of the finalists to read this week. After you finish the book, you will create a movie poster that is once again designed to entice a group of middle schoolers to read the book. As the examples above demonstrate, there are multiple ways to approach this task.

 

Using "The 5 Steps to Creating a Movie Poster" as a guide, your poster should contain a photo or other artwork that symbolizes an important message in the book, the title of your book, credits (who would star in this film?), and a catchy slogan. Please note, your photo should be more than simply doing a Google search and dropping in a photo. Use photo-editing software to create an original image that captures the spirit of the book. While this might come from a combination of things you find online, it might also be an original photo or illustration. There are a lot of free software options you can use to create your poster. Canva and Adobe Spark are two good ones to use. 

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Once you have created your poster, upload it to your portfolio. Your poster should be posted to your page by SUNDAY, April 10th at 5pm. This will give me time to compile the posters and send them on to our middle school judges (my students!) who will vote on Monday, April 11th. Then, once again, be ready to get your next reading assignment and challenge once the results are in. 

Forging Forward to the Final Four

Now, it is time to set our books to music and create a soundtrack for our movies. Once again, you will be assigned a book to read from the Elite 8. Then, you will work with your group to develop a soundtrack that captures the events and emotions of the book. This is going to take some coordination with your group. Using a communication tool such as Slack, brainstorm a list of importance scenes from the book. Then, each of you should take three scenes and identify songs that provide insights into the scene.

 

You will create a Google slide presentation. It should include:

  • A title slide that features the winning poster. Tip: You can create screenshots to capture the poster for use on your slide.

  • A slide for each of the songs. Each song slide should include:

    • The title and artist of the song​

    • A YouTube video that features the song

    • A BRIEF explanation of the scene and how the song will help emphasize the plot and/or mood of the scene. Please be careful not to spoil the book for our middle schoolers who may want to read the book!

 

Keep in mind that you should pay close attention to how the songs enhance the scene. Don't choose a song just because it's by your favorite artist.

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Once your group has created your soundtrack, upload the presentation to EACH OF YOUR portfolios. Your soundtrack should be posted to your page by MONDAY, April 18 at 5pm. This will give me time to compile the soundtracks and send them on to our middle school judges (my students!) who will vote on Tuesday, April 19th. Then, once again, be ready to get your next reading assignment and challenge once the results are in. Please note that since we lost a day in our week, I would recommend getting a quick start on this so you can all coordinate your scenes sooner rather than later.

Approaching the Final Match-Up

As we head toward the final battle, we are gearing up our book promotions in our quest to win the ultimate championship title. Now that the Final Four have been determined, you will work with your assigned group to continue to promote your assigned novel. And what's a movie/book promotion without cool merch?

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Your group will form a sales promotion company designed to create merchandise that will sell your book. The possibilities are endless: t-shirts, trading cards, action figures, Funko Pops, games, toys, animated spin-offs and more. If you can imagine it, it's possible! Your first step is to meet with your newly formed company to brainstorm the possible merchandise you think will best promote the book. Then, you will each take on one piece of the challenge:

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  • One of you will create a logo that should be featured somewhere on each piece of merchandise. Brand recognition is important! Make sure that there is some sort of symbolic connection to the events or themes in the book. Consider what the slogan might be. Please note, that whoever takes on this role should be able to do their part of the work early so others can use the newly-designed logo.

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  • One of you will create a catalog/sales flyer that will feature all the merchandise. Our consumers need to know what they can buy to show their loyalty to the book. You will want to write some introductory language designed to entice viewers to peruse through your selection and show their loyalty to your book. This can be designed prior to receiving the merchandise, but you will need to be available to insert the images of each of the items featured in your catalog later in the process.

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  • The rest of you will create the merch that is featured in the catalog, and each of you needs to design something different. If one of you is designing socks, the rest should focus your efforts on something else. We want to spread the word about our book as far and wide as we possibly can! Once you have designed your item, write a brief description of it that helps readers connect it back to your book. Don't forget to tell the public what it will cost!

 

Don't forget! The stakes are high. Will YOUR book make it to the final match-up?

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Once your group has created your catalog/sales flyer, upload it to EACH OF YOUR portfolios. Your catalog/flyer should be posted to your page by SUNDAY, April 24 at 5pm. This will give me time to compile your work and send them on to our middle school judges (my students!) who will vote on Monday, April 25. Then, once again, be ready to get your final reading assignment and challenge once the results are in. Please note, I would recommend getting a quick start on this so you can all coordinate your efforts sooner rather than later.

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The Final Match-Up

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Your sales promotion company was so successful, it has doubled in size! But don't worry, there's still a lot of work to be done. Every great movie--and book--deserves a site dedicated to it. Don't believe me? Check out The Avengers, Star Wars, or Toy Story. Using these sites--as well as others you discover on your own--as inspiration, your group will design a website to promote your movie and provide your fans with additional material to help them continue to explore the world they were introduced to through the book.

 

To begin, your group will need to determine what tool you will use to build your site. Wix and Weebly are both great, but they are not as easy to use collaboratively. I would recommend that if you use one of these tools, one or two of your team take on the job of designing the site and uploading content to the page. Google Sites, however, allows multiple people to edit the site at the same time. This may make it the best choice for your group. It's up to you to decide. 

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Once you have decided on a tool, you will need to determine the content of the site. While it makes sense--and is even recommended--to use some of the previously created materials on your site, you will also be expected to create new content. It's up to your group to decide what should be included. Each of you is expected to contribute equally to the final project, so that means you will be creating A LOT of content.

 

Some ideas include:

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  • A read aloud video or audio of an important scene in the book

  • Instructional videos on how to do something featured in the book

  • Testimonial videos of why people love the book

  • An animated series or comic inspired by the book

  • Character profiles, including who is playing the parts

  • Recipes that connect to events or themes in the book

  • Theme park attractions--Disney or Universal are dying to devote a section of the park to the book

  • Reviews

  • Snapchat filters

  • Trivia

  • Interactive games--any of you programmers?

  • Your book in the news

  • A blog

  • Product placements--You mean you made the Cinnamon Toast Crunch box? The cover of Time magazine?

  • Social media posts

  • Fan art or fan fiction

  • Polls

  • Additional trailers/movie stills

  • Behind the scenes interviews

  • Related events

  • What else? Don't limit your imagination!

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Once your group has created your site, link it to EACH OF YOUR portfolios. Your site should be posted to your page by SUNDAY, May 1st at 5pm. Our middle school judges (my students!) who will vote on Monday, May 2nd. Please note, I would recommend getting a quick start on this so you can all coordinate your efforts sooner rather than later.

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