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 120 hours!
Go to the YA Scavenger Hunt page to find out all about the hunt. There are SEVENcontests going on simultaneously, and you can enter one or all! We are part of the ORANGE TEAM–– but there is also a red team, a gold team, a blue team, a red team, a pink team, and a purple team for a chance to win a whole different set of books!
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**
**SCAVENGER HUNT POST**
kid sister wouldn’t be dead. So when the image of baby Jesus appears on a Babybel cheese wheel, she’s not buying the idea that God’s got a dairy obsession. Soon, religious signs begin turning up all over Del’s hometown, tiny Clemency, Texas. Overnight, news vans fill the streets and religious pilgrims start searching for God in the discount aisle of the grocery store.Hell-bent on proving the so-called miracles are fake, Del convinces her best friend, Gabe, to help her find the truth. While Gabe’s willing to play detective, as a preacher’s son he’s more interested in finding evidence that supports the miracles. But when the whole town becomes caught up in religious fervor and even the late-night talk show hosts have stopped laughing and started to believe, finding the truth might cause more trouble than Del can handle. This novel is neither pro nor anti-religion, and will appeal to fans of contemporary YA novels that explore deep themes with an element of humor. The voice and characters are funny, strong, and full of heart. This is a book for anyone who loved the movie Saved!
As a special treat, J.C. is sharing a deleted scene from her book. Check out a message and the excerpt below!
My main character, Del’s, most prized possession is the Polaroid camera her Grandfather gave her. After Del’s sister dies and Del feels adrift, she uses the camera to try to make sense of her world, to piece it back together one picture at a time. But the camera is also a tangible connection to her Grandfather, her Pops, and her pictures are sometimes as much for him as they are for Del.
A lot of things get lost in the editing process when you’re writing a book. While I loved this scene, it didn’t really do anything to move the story forward. And so out it went. But in my heart, I know Del is still leaving pictures at her Grandfather’s grave.
Deleted Scene from CHEESUS WAS HERE:
I make a quick stop on my way to the Gas & Gut. The cemetery is surrounded on all four sides with a waist-high chain link fence and a single gate that swings wide open on screeching hinges. I’m not sure why the fence is here. Anyone who wants in could easily climb over, even if the gate was locked. It never is. Besides, if the zombie apocalypse happens tomorrow that fence is saving no one.
Inside the cemetery, I turn right, keeping my eyes averted from Claire’s grave. It doesn’t matter. I could find it blindfolded even though I haven’t been back since the day she was buried. Some things get stuck in your brain.
Instead, I walk over to Pops’ grave.
He shares a gravestone with my grandmother, their names side by side in bold black letters: “Edgar Hyram Beaty, Loving Husband” and “Marigold Elizabeth Carrol, Beloved Wife.” Grandma passed away when I was five. I barely remember her. Despite that, every year at Valentines and on their wedding anniversary, Pops dragged me along with him to put flowers on Grandma’s grave. Always yellow daisies. Every year Pops said the same thing, “Smiling daisies for my Marigold girl.” Then he’d kiss the top of her gravestone.
I usually hung back, embarrassed at the tears in Pops eyes, and a little jealous too. Would anyone ever love me that much?
Grandma’s grave hasn’t had flowers since Pops died. I feel a bad about it but at the same time, that was Pops’ ritual and I’d feel like a phony trying to take his place.
I’ve got my own ritual now.
Digging in the back pocket of my jeans, I pull out a Polaroid. The white frame is bent and there’s a crease down one corner of the picture from where I sat on it during homeroom. The picture shows a crow perched on the rusting top of an abandoned tractor. Pops would have loved the idea of that bird picking over the tractor’s metal bones, black feathers dark against the chipped green paint.
On the ground, below Pops’ name, a knobbly grey rock the size of a baseball anchors a dozen Polaroids stacked one on top of the other. I lift it, careful not to disturb the photos, which are cracked and fragile from being outdoors, white frames streaked with dirt. I add today’s offering to the pile and nod my head at the gravestone. I hope somewhere Pops is smiling, watching as I bring him another little piece of the world.
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Don’t forget to enter the contest for a chance to win a ton of books by us, J.C. Davis, and more! To enter, look for the bolded number if you haven’t found it already. 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!
Michelle Andreani and Mindi Scott 
