Middle Grade Madness! discussion

Hey there to my fellow captains, and for some of you, welcome back!

The Captains:
Team Morrigan Crow - Kadi (me)
Team Mary Poppins - Aeriell
Team Amari Peters - Dorijana
Team Matilda Wormwood - Tanaya
Team Wolf - Eden
Team Zenobia - Chara

If you or your team members have any questions (that aren’t addressed in the rules) please feel free to ask them here so I can answer them.

I’ll also be using this space to announce stuff like the Bonus Tasks and other updates so keep an eye on this topic!

How the spreadsheet works:
- There are 4 different sheet tabs.

1. Official Challenge Sheet
- This is the main one.
- All points auto-populate so you don’t have to calculate anything yourself. Just fill in the right boxes and points will appear. Please don’t mess with the points coding! If you do by accident or you think it’s not working properly please let me know, don’t try and fix it yourself because all the coding is linked and some of it is so complicated I'm honestly surprised I managed to make it work!
- Please use the British date method for filling in the start and finished read boxes like dd/mm/yy NOT the American method. Check out the Example Sheet for reference.

2. Tracking Sheet
- This is informal and optional, you don’t have to use it but it’ll make things easier for you and your team so I recommend you do.
- All the boxes align with the Official Challenge Sheet so you can copy paste the whole row from the Tracking Sheet into the Challenge Sheet to save you time.

3. Task Guidance
- This gives more guidance on tasks so please check this sheet out. It’ll be very useful for some tasks that are specific. I tried to foresee where a task might be confusing and then clarified what counts and doesn’t count for ambiguous tasks.

4. Example of Challenge Sheet
- This is just a duplicate of the Official Challenge Sheet with a few rows filled in to show you how you should fill in the Official Challenge Sheet.

Please remember as Captain that it's your responsibility to make sure the spreadsheet is up to date but that doesn't mean you have to do everything! If you're ok with it then you can allow your team members to fill in the Official Tracking Sheet if they want to.
I always like to let my team members fill in the Tracking Sheet themselves if they want to and then only I as Captain handle the Official Tracking Sheet. But there are many different ways to be in charge so make sure to discuss it with your team members where necessary.

Hello guys! I’m excited to b a captain hopefully i wont mess up anything haha

EdenB15 wrote: "Hello guys! I’m excited to b a captain hopefully i wont mess up anything haha"

Hahah don't worry you'll be fine! The excitement is what counts! I too am super excited to start reading and filling in the spreadsheet. Organising that spreadsheet is so satisfying😂

Chara I just wanted to let you know that I know your team is 1 member short but hopefully that's just for now. I'm waiting for Abigael to fill in the sign up form and then I can add her to your team. Hopefully that'll be tomorrow or the day after, I'm sorry to keep your team waiting like that!

Good to know. Abigael just filled in her form.

@Chara yeah I saw her message but there must have been some error with the form because it hasn’t gone through so I don’t have her details yet. It’ll be just a bit longer before I can add her to your team, sorry!

Hey guys, so I’m currently sending out messages to all the team members who haven’t shown up yet. And if there’s anyone who hasn’t messaged on your group page by 27th July, please let me know!

Also for the team name please remember that it has to be the character’s full name like Team Harry Potter, it can’t be Team Harry or Team Potter. The only exception is for characters that don’t have a last name. For example, take the team from last year, Team Charlotte, which was named after the character Charlotte from Charlotte’s Web and she didn’t have a last name in the book. Or Team Coraline from the 2019 Challenge (the protagonist from the book Coraline doesn’t have a last name).

Once you and your team members have decided on a team name please let me know here and I can change the team name on the team page and spreadsheet😊

Kadi wrote: "Hey guys, so I’m currently sending out messages to all the team members who haven’t shown up yet. And if there’s anyone who hasn’t messaged on your group page by 27th July, please let me know!

Als..."

Thanks for the update.

Hey Chara, I've just gotten Abigael's details so I've added her to your team now😊

Kadi wrote: "Hey Chara, I've just gotten Abigael's details so I've added her to your team now😊"

Yay!

Chara's Craftsations wrote: "Yay!"

🎉🎉

I just want to say a big thanks in advance to all of you! You guys are really what makes this challenge possible so thanks for being team captains and just let me know if you need help with anything over the next month!😊

When do the team names hv to b chosen by

Tanaya wrote: "Hey Kadi so this is my first mg reading challenge so what do i have to do regarding the spreadsheet? Also the book asigned o me i have already read ..what do i do?"

I know I'm not Kadi but I took part last year:
The spreadsheet is used to keep track of and fill out with books once you read them. If it's like last year, there was prompts and you get to figure out the book that you think would fit! The book that is assigned to you should be the one you submittted in the form if I am correct?

Hey Tanaya ooh your first reading challenge! It’s such an honour for me for this to be your first one because that experience always sticks with you!

Anyway the spreadsheet will have 4 tabs at the bottom. Each tab takes you to a different sheet. What each sheet is for is explained in the second message of this discussion page so please scroll up and read it!

The most important part of the spreadsheet is the first tab which is the official challenge sheet and this is where your team will get points. It’s much like Aeriell says, there’ll be a list of the 100 tasks on the left hand side then there’s a row of boxes next to each task to fill in with details such as the book title, the date it was started and finished, which team member read it, the reason it fits the task and the number of pages the book had. The points will autocalculate itself once you fill in the boxes correctly so you don’t need to worry about that. And all the boxes are clearly labelled so you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly.

And just to start you off, the 4th tab on the spreadsheet is an example of how to fill in the official challenge sheet. So you can use that to see how to fill it in. The 3rd tab is guidance on each specific task. I tried to foresee questions people would have about them and answered them for each task there so that should help you and your team members figure out the books you can read for each task.

The 2nd tab is a tracking sheet and it’s very informal. You don’t have to use it but it’ll be easier for you if you do. You can have your team members fill in the tracking sheet with the info themselves. And the whole row of boxes is the same order as the boxes in the official challenge sheet so you can just copy paste the info to make it easier for you!

Sorry for the super long answer. It seems sort of complicated but once you see it you’ll get it pretty quickly, it’s all nicely labelled. And you can ask me more specific questions about the spreadsheet later once you see it too!

Also Tanaya the book next to your name isn’t one assigned to you! That’s just the mg book you recommended in your form when you signed up.

There may or may not be some tasks that are like “read a book recommended by a team member” so putting your recommendation next to your name makes it easier for your team members to see what they can read for tasks like that and they don’t have to ask you for a recommendation.

Also it’s kind of like inspiration if anyone’s stuck on what to read. I love reading people’s recommendations so I might read what people have suggested just for the lols!

Eden there’s no specific deadline but let’s just say the end of July at the latest so we can all start August with proper spreadsheets and not any that say “Team A”, “Team B” etc as they all do right now.
You don’t have to wait till the end of the month too, just let me know whenever you and your team have decided!

Tanaya wrote: "Thank you thank you thank you soo much Kadi and all of u.... got it now thxs again!"

I'm so glad it made sense! Can't wait to start filling the spreadsheet in😂 That's half the fun of the challenge!

Where can I find the spreadsheet? Or do I have to make one? Also one of my team members (Charlotte) has not check in. Should I DM her?

Chara's Craftsations wrote: "Where can I find the spreadsheet? Or do I have to make one? Also one of my team members (Charlotte) has not check in. Should I DM her?"

I'll be sharing each team's spreadsheet with every team member and captain via email invites on 1st August (more like some time between 11pm and midnight on 31st July).

And thanks for letting me know, I'll message her now!

Having a quick look around, it seems all teams have had everyone arrive. It's just Team E waiting for Michelle and Team F waiting for Charlotte. I've messaged them both again and I'm sure they'll check in soon.

Not long to go now guys!

Kadi wrote: "Having a quick look around, it seems all teams have had everyone arrive. It's just Team E waiting for Michelle and Team F waiting for Charlotte. I've messaged them both again and I'm sure they'll c..."

Great! Thank you so much.

😊😊

Hi Kadi! I'm the captain for group C, we have decided on the name Amari Peters.

Dorijana wrote: "Hi Kadi! I'm the captain for group C, we have decided on the name Amari Peters."

Awesome! I'll change it on your team page and spreadsheet then.
My team has decided to go with Team Morrigan Crow!

Hey Kadi, 3 out of the 5 of us have decided to name our Team B as Team Mary Poppins.
Looks like we are keeping under the magical names :)

Magical names I mean

Awesome Aeriell! I'll change it on the team page and spreadsheet.
For Teams D, E, and F can I have your team names as soon as you can guys! There's only 1 day left😱

Also Chara I haven't heard back from Charlotte yet but I will keep checking on that. Maybe she'll appear on the first day? In any case, please decide on your team name without her because I'd like to start the first day with all the spreadsheets ready

Kadi wrote: "Awesome Aeriell! I'll change it on the team page and spreadsheet.
For Teams D, E, and F can I have your team names as soon as you can guys! There's only 1 day left😱

Also Chara I haven't heard back..."

Okay. Our team name is Zenobia after Elizabeth and Zenobia

Chara's Craftsations wrote: "Okay. Our team name is Zenobia after Elizabeth and Zenobia"

What a cool name! Does she have a last name or is it just Zenobia?

Kadi wrote: "Chara's Craftsations wrote: "Okay. Our team name is Zenobia after Elizabeth and Zenobia"

What a cool name! Does she have a last name or is it just Zenobia?"

Just Zenobia. She's a ghost believe to be an imaginary friend by Elizabeth's father.

@Chara Sounds like a pretty interesting book, I might end up reading it next month!
And I've changed your team page to include your name now.

Kadi wrote: "@Chara Sounds like a pretty interesting book, I might end up reading it next month!
And I've changed your team page to include your name now."

Great! Thank you.

The book reminded me of Coraline.

Hi! Our team name is team wolf inspired from the book Wolf Brother

@Tanaya @Eden great! I’ll change it on the team pages tonight because I’m not at my laptop right now.

Also Team Wolf sounds so cool, I’m definitely going to check out that book now!

Thanks Kadi! Can’t wait for tomorrow. Im about to go hunt round and make a TBR pile

I can’t wait too Eden! I have 7 hours and 3 comics to finish because I want to start August with an empty currently reading shelf. This is going to be a last minute rush!

Yeah that’s why I tend to only read at night when I have time to myself, family and noise can sometimes be distracting.

Anyway let’s keep this chat for captain discussions only so we can all communicate well and the chat doesn’t get cluttered! The spreadsheets are all done and ready to go! I’ve also made a score spreadsheet and I’ll share that tomorrow.

Tanaya wrote: "Hi Kadi sorry to confuse you but please change the team name to Matilda!"

Hey that's no problem! I hadn't changed it anyway. So your team name will be Matilda Wormwood now! (She has a last name so I'm going to include that in the team name, hopefully your team is ok with that)

Also lol Annie it's ok😂

Hey Captains!
The spreadsheets are officially live!

If any of your team members have issues accessing it please let me know!
And I'll be checking in on you guys so I'll help you all with any spreadsheet issues you have. So excited to finally start!

For task 19 A book with a blue and red/orange cover. It says "The parents can't be recently divorced; they must be in the process of divorcing during the events of the book. The divorce cannot be amicable, it must be a struggle between both sides in some way."

Is this a mistake?

Yeah it’s from the task that was there before and then I decided it didn’t fit with the theme of the category so I changed the task to what it is now.
Thanks for letting me know, I’ll get rid of it!

Hey I got a question Kadi for task 36 does it have to be from a specific book of the month or can it be from an event where there was bingo or prompts and we jsut put the prompt down as the reason for the book?

Morning Kadi I sent u a email already having technical difficulties in this end haha

@Aeriell the book has to be specifically named in the 2019 event so any events with prompts where people can choose their own book don’t count for the task. I guess that leaves only books from our Book of the Month in 2019 and the list of books from the October Readathon 2019 that you can find here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1... (be warned, I didn’t separate the book list into MG, YA, etc that year)
I’ll amend the task guidance to include this info.

@Eden I’ve sent an invite to your other email so hopefully you got it. If not, please let me know and I can try again.

@Tanaya yeah rereads count!

Thank you yes I did

My teammates have questions:

Does "four trees" mean precisely 4 trees, no more & no less?

Category 8, Task 1. Do we only have only 6 books to choose from? Would Drama count?

Are we allowed to have different people reading the same book for different tasks?

Say we DNF a book. How much do we have to read in order for it to count? Or does DNF automatically disqualified it?

@Eden great!

@Chara I'll answer your qs in order:

1. It’s four or more.
I’ve amended the wording of the task to make that clear, sorry! The trees should be like prominent shapes not just a cluster of trees in the background, if you get me. Like they should clearly be identifiable as four separate trees and if there are more in the background or whatever then that’s fine.
I’ll add that extra info into the task guidance.

2. For that task Aeriell also asked about it so it seems everyone's wondering. There are the 8 books of the month and also all the books from this list here: https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1... which are from our October Readathon 2019 event. I'll be adding this link to the task guidance right now too.

3. Yep.
4. No, books that are DNF'ed do not count. Books must be finished completely to count!

Ello Georgann Is saying she can’t get access from her account either. Hahah why r my team having all the technical difficulties

EdenB15 wrote: "Ello Georgann Is saying she can’t get access from her account either. Hahah why r my team having all the technical difficulties"

Aah sorry about that, it's probably because google sheets seems to only work with gmail accounts so those who signed up with other email accounts would have issues. I think next year I'll specify on the form to use a gmail account to try and bypass this issue.
It's a pain but I've given Georgann access now so hopefully it works! Let me know if it doesn't and I can try again!