Selection Sunday

Every time my husband and I take our son to the pediatrician for his well baby checkups, we get a piece of paper with useful information for the next few months of his life. Usually, it includes things like safety and nutritional information, tips for learning and discipline, and milestones that he may reach before his next visit. The sheet we got at his last visit, however, had an interesting suggestion.

"Let your child choose between two different books for his bedtime story."

We started letting him pick out his story every night from two books that we grabbed off his shelf, usually at random. There were certain books we knew were his favorites, and of course, we noticed that he picked these fairly consistently over other options when offered. Every now and then, however, he'd surprise us, and make an unexpected choice.

Now, I got my college education at a school that is very fond of a certain sport that usually starts to dominate the office watercooler talk around this time every year. So as we made our way through the month of February, I found myself thinking how interesting it might be to pit my son's library against itself, to find out which of his books would win out, have its One Shining Moment, and cut down the proverbial nets of his heart.

Unfortunately, my son has A LOT of books. Like, a lot. Just, so many books. Narrowing his collection down to a manageable field of 64 could be tricky, but I did my best to emulate the NCAA's own selection process: I picked out the really obvious ones first and then just randomized the rest until I got the number of books I needed.

Due to the typically daily nature of bedtime, we won't be able to knock out several match-ups in a single day like some other tournaments do. The first match-up will take place on the evening of March 1st, 2018, with another match-up every night until we've made it through the first round. Then there will be a little break and we'll pick up with round two, and so on and so forth until the final match-up on May 12th. Every post will have a little write up on our contenders, with links to buy them when possible. Upsets are the name of the bracket game even when a win isn't dependent on the fickle moods of a toddler, so I predict this could be a wild and crazy ride. You know, for as much as a bunch of books about small animals, the ABCs, and saying "please" and "thank you" can really be called "wild and crazy".

I've included the following handy brackets for anyone who might want to keep track at home, or speculate the winners. As a reminder, bracket betting pools are usually illegal, so please, try to play along responsibly.




And a full list of the included books, in "seeded" order:

Farmyard Beat
Dancing Feet
C is for Cthulhu
Good Night Gorilla
Tubby Bañito
Global Baby Boys
I Am Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hippos Go Berserk
ABC is for Circus
First 100 Trucks
Happy Hippo, Angry Duck
Old Hat, New Hat
I Am Albert Einstein
Eek! Halloween
My Turtle and Me
Things That Go
The Count’s Castle
Doggies
Sherlock Holmes
Peekaboo with Cheeky Monkey
Even Superheroes Sleep
Spooky, Spooky Little Bat
Out and About
Superhero ABC 123
Superheroes Busy Bodies
First 100 Animals
Jungle Book
Eyes, Nose, Fingers and Toes
Bubbles Bubbles
Baby Signs
A Charlie Brown Christmas
But Not The Hippopotamus
Cars and Trucks From A to Z
Three Little Kittens
Hop On Pop
Numbers Colors Shapes
Bingo Was His Name
Sleep Baby, Safe and Snug
Frankenstein
Count To Five
Dr Seuss’s ABC
Farm Numbers
Batman Shapes
My Friend Hello Kitty
On the Night You Were Born
Kittens
My First Book of Superpowers
Bob
Look Look
A to Z
Peekaboo with Happy Cow
Peekaboo with Spotty Dog
First Book of Sushi
Hickory Dickory Dock
Blue Hat, Green Hat
A Day With The Little Prince
Moby Dick
Dracula
Big Bird’s Color Game
Big & Small, Far & Near
Alice In Wonderland
Disney Babies 1 To 10
Baby Reindeer
Moo, Baa, La La La