YA Scavenger Hunt

Welcome to YA Scavenger Hunt! This bi-annual event was first organized by author Colleen Houck as a way to give readers a chance to gain access to exclusive bonus material from their favorite authors...and a chance to win some awesome prizes! At this hunt, you not only get access to exclusive content from each author, you also get a clue for the hunt. Add up the clues, and you can enter for our prize--one lucky winner will receive one book from each author on the hunt in my team! But play fast: this contest (and all the exclusive bonus material) will only be online for a short time!

Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are FOUR contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the BLUE TEAM--but there is also a red team, a gold team, and a purple team for a chance to win a whole different set of books!

If you'd like to find out more about the hunt, see links to all the authors participating, and see the full list of prizes up for grabs, go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page.

SCAVENGER HUNT PUZZLE

Directions: Below, you'll notice that I've listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the blue team, and then add them up (don't worry, you can use a calculator!). 

Entry Form: Once you've added up all the numbers, make sure you fill out the form here to officially qualify for the grand prize. Only entries that have the correct number will qualify.

Rules: Open internationally, anyone below the age of 18 should have a parent or guardian's permission to enter. To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit the completed entry form by April 5th, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

SCAVENGER HUNT POST

Today, I am excited to be hosting YVONNE VENTRESCA here on my blog as part of the YA Scavenger Hunt! Yvonne is the author of BLACK FLOWERS, WHITE LIES and PANDEMIC (winner of SCBWI’s Crystal Kite Award). In addition to her YA novels, Yvonne’s other work includes two nonfiction books and several short stories selected for anthologies, including the newly released middle grade collection, VOYAGERS: THE THIRD GHOST. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College of Fine Arts. When she’s not writing, she loves a good ghost story and studies karate in a haunted dojo. You can learn more at YvonneVentresca.com, where she features resources for teen writers. 

Find out more information by checking out Yvonne's website or find more about PANDEMIC here!
You can also follow Yvonne on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT 

 About Pandemic 

By Yvonne Ventresca

My young adult novel, Pandemic, is about a teenager struggling to survive a deadly flu outbreak. As I write this post during Covid-19, I’m struck by the eerie similarity of the fictional world I created and the current events we are now living through. 

In the midst of this, it doesn’t feel appropriate to reveal something light-hearted about Pandemic, like a deleted scene or a Pinterest board. So instead I will share this: my main character, Lil, is a survivor. She is sometimes afraid, and her journey is not an easy one. But Lil ultimately triumphs. I hope you will, too. 

Someday, in the aftermath of Covid-19, you might like to read Pandemic. But for now, I’m wishing all the YASH participants health and safety during these tumultuous times.

In PANDEMIC, only a few people know what caused Lilianna Snyder's sudden change from a model student to a withdrawn pessimist who worries about all kinds of disasters. When people begin coming down with a quick-spreading illness that doctors are unable to treat, Lil’s worst fears are realized. With her parents called away on business before the contagious outbreak--her journalist father in Delaware covering the early stages of the disease and her mother in Hong Kong and unable to get a flight back to New Jersey--Lil’s town is hit by what soon becomes a widespread fatal illness. With friends and neighbors dying around her, Lil does everything she can to survive. Just when it all seems too much, the cause of her original trauma shows up at her door. Lil must find a way to survive not only the outbreak and its real-life consequences, but also her own personal demons. 

And don't forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books by lots of YA authors! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 11. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the blue team and you'll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

CONTINUE THE HUNT

To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author, Amy Fellner Dominy! http://amydominy.com/blog/

YASH is now on Twitter and Facebook! You can follow and tweet YASH @yascavengerhunt and the same on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yascavengerhunt.