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 signed 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 72 hours!

Go to the YA Scavenger Huntpage to find out all about the hunt. There are SIX contests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! I am a part of the ORANGE TEAM–but there is also a red team, a gold team, an blue team, a red team, and an indie team for a chance to win a whole different set of signed 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.

Directions: Below, you’ll notice that I’ve listed my favorite number. Collect the favorite numbers of all the authors on the orange 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 Thursday, October 1, at noon Pacific Time. Entries sent without the correct number or without contact information will not be considered.

Today, I am hosting Maria E. Andreu on my website for the YA Scavenger Hunt! 

Maria E. Andreu is a writer and speaker whose work has appeared in Newsweek, The Washington Post, NJ.com, and the Newark Star Ledger. Her debut young adult novel, The Secret Side of Empty is a Junior Library Guild Selection, a National Indie Excellence Book Award winner, an International Latino Book Awards Finalist and has been called “captivating” by School Library Journal. Maria currently lives in New Jersey with her two children.

Find out more information by checking out Maria’s website or find more about THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY here! 

Enjoy this cut scene from THE SECRET SIDE OF EMPTY

​He feels electric close to me, like those glass orbs you touch and watch the purple light shoot to your fingers. I feel the energy, like those purple streaks, from him to me and from him to me back again. I run my pinky on his as we stare up at the clear fall sky, the carpet of leaves crunchy beneath me any time I move my feet. His jacket cradles my neck, the same way I bunch up my pillow when I’m trying to fall asleep, just in the spot where he placed it perfectly, like he knew. 

He knew. My love for this guy is like gooey marshmallow melting all in my insides. It’s a problem.

I can’t believe we get to do this – that I get to do this with him. I have no idea how I’ve pulled this off. Suddenly I feel a wave come over me: you have to tell him. I hear it almost like a voice commanding me. The urge is so strong I am tempted to clamp my hand over my mouth to control it.  It’s like only in telling him my secret will he ever love me, because now… who is he really loving? Not me, but who he thinks I am. He can’t know me unless he knows the whole story.

But, of course, no one can ever know.

And don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of signed books by me, Marie Andreau, and more! To enter, you need to know that my favorite number is 13. Add up all the favorite numbers of the authors on the orange team and you’ll have all the secret code to enter for the grand prize!

As a straight-A student with a budding romance and loyal best friend, M.T.’s life seems as apple-pie American as her blondish hair and pale skin. But M.T. hides two facts to the contrary: her full name of Monserrat Thalia and her status as an undocumented immigrant.

With senior year of high school kicking into full swing, M.T. sees her hopes for a “normal” future unraveling. And it will take discovering a sense of trust in herself and others for M.T. to stake a claim in the life that she wants.

​To keep going on your quest for the hunt, you need to check out the next author! 
Marissa Kennerson