March Madness 2026: To Be RED
Your favorite books are red-hot and ready to be read!

Red Alert! March Madness is back featuring the very best of the backlist! It’s March Madness 2026: To Be RED, featuring 16 sizzling books across 8 colorful categories from Crimson Classics to Fiery Fantasy, Ruby Retellings to Vermilion Verse. 

Each week, vote for the titles you think should advance as they battle it out for the title of March Madness Champion 2026!

How to Participate

• Vote Weekly: Voting opens on Monday mornings and that round of voting will be open through Sunday night. Vote once per week from Monday, March 2 through Sunday, March 29.
• Prize Drawing: Each time you vote, you'll be entered into a drawing to win a prize bundle.
• Bonus Entry: Want extra chances to win? Fill out a bracket with your predictions before the tournament starts for a bonus prize drawing entry! Brackets will be available at the Adult and Teen Services Desk starting February 2.
• Perfect Bracket Prize: Think you can predict every winner? If you correctly guess your entire bracket, you'll win the Perfect Bracket Prize!
• Beanstack Tracking (optional):
  If you enjoy tracking your reading or collecting badges, you can follow your March Madness activity in Beanstack. Log the time you spend reading any of the Sweet Sixteen titles to earn red themed reading badges, and log your weekly votes to collect voting badges. Register for March Madness tracking here!

Dates:

• Bracket Predictions Due: Sunday, March 1st 
• Round 1: Monday, March 2 - Sunday March 8
• Round 2: Monday, March 9 - Sunday, March 15
• Round 3: Monday, March 16 - Sunday, March 22
• Championship: Monday, March 23 - Sunday, March 29
• Final Champion Revealed: Monday, March 30th

How to Submit Your Bracket

• Pick up a printed bracket: Grab a form at the Adult & Teen Services Desk.
• Submit online: Download, print, and bring it to the Library or fill in and email it to kcunningham@newlenoxlibrary.org.

Voting and Registration

• Online: Voting links will be available on our website and social media pages.
• In-Person: Pick up a ballot at the Library during each round’s voting window.
• Register (optional): Sign up through our calendar to get weekly reminder emails and voting links

Meet this year’s Sweet Sixteen:

Crimson Classics

• Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) 
• The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne)

Mahogany Memoirs

• How We Fight for Our Lives (Saeed Jones)
• Crying in H Mart (Michelle Zauner)

Fiery Fantasy

• A Court of Thorns and Roses (Sarah J. Maas) 
• An Ember in the Ashes (Sabaa Tahir)

Vermilion Verse

• Solo (Kwame Alexander)
• Impulse (Ellen Hopkins)

Ruby Retellings

• The Wrath and the Dawn (Renée Ahdieh)
• Spindle Splintered (Alix E. Harrow)

Scarlet Science Fiction

• Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro) 
• Dark Matter (Blake Crouch) 

Maroon Mysteries

• The Maid (Nita Prose)
• The Thursday Murder Club (Richard Osman) 

Burgundy Bestsellers

• Interior Chinatown (Charles Yu)
• The Nickel Boys (Colson Whitehead)