Dallas/Fort Worth REPRESENT

Dallas/Fort Worth Forever Young Adult Book Club KICKS ASS, TAKES NAMES.

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Annnnnnnd SCENE

Posting fingers down, everyone! Book 3 is officially CLOSED FOR SHOWDOWN BUSINESS.

Look for the Puzzle 3 Solution here on the Hub, Mandy’s Book 3 recap over at FYA, and Alexis’ final captains’ email earlyish on Monday—there may be a surprise waiting for you!

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Photo Bonus #3: Low-Key Cover Cosplay

Have you heard of Disneybounding? Well, read up on it, because for this final Photo Hunt bonus we are giving you a chance to do (almost) just that! Our twist? We want you do low-key cosplay as the YA covers you’ve chosen for your Book 3 Photo Hunt submissions. Natch!

Guidelines:

- Each Photo Hunt submission featuring one of your team’s members cosplaying the cover scheme will earn +4 bonus points.

- The cosplay cannot be the *only* element of the cover interpretation; set up the photos how you would have without any bonus points on offer, so that anyone unaware of the cosplay scheme would still get the pun/tableau/joke if they saw the photo without context.

- That said, include context! Specifically, the cover image of whatever edition of your book you chose (foreign editions absolutely welcome).

Need a boost of inspiration? Check out the genius Twitter account, Harry as Books:

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, JK Rowling (@jk_rowling) pic.twitter.com/hiJkpR0ZmL

Or go even fancier with something like The NOVL’s Re(a)d Carpet:

Tag all your bonus-eligible submissions with #2016 photo bonus 3.

Deadline for cosplay bonuses is midnight PT, July 31. 

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2016 Puzzle #3: The Old School One

Email your guesses to [email protected]. As the letter states, you can make up to three guesses this time and still be eligible for points. Deadline is midnight PT, July 31.

NB: There’s still only +10 points on offer for this puzzle, so if mental decryption aerobics aren’t your thing, go ahead and apply your energies instead to slaying the final set of Artifact Hunt items!

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Puzzle #2: Mischief Managed

Put away your compasses.  Puzzle 2 is over!  

This puzzle had a few tricky aspects, but they didn’t throw most teams off course.  Here are your answers:

Part One

1. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh 2. Shades of London by Maureen Johnson 3. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir 4. Brightly Woven by Alexandra Bracken 5. Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon 6. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell 7. The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff 8. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart 9. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas 10. The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine 11. Chaos Walking by Patrick Ness

Part Two

HOMONCULOUS (the word “charm” in the instructions was a clue - in the Harry Potter books, the Homonculous Charm enables the possessor of the Marauder’s Map to track the movements of people in the mapped area).

Part Three

“See? Life goes forward. More, much more, will happen after this. Things involving maps and books and true love and tragedy, tragedy like you wouldn’t believe.”

Part Four

Essential Maps for the Lost by Deb Caletti 

Great job, teams!  Just one more puzzle to go!

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Velvet Undercover, music nerd style. +3 points

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Just look at this adorable YA Melee submission from the extremely talented FYADFW member Leah. Just look at it!!!

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Aesthetic post for the EVERY series by Ellie Marney. Wattscroft 4 ever!!

+15 points

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One of our resident theater experts, Amanda, made this #ham4ya meme.

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FYADFW is chock full of librarians, and we love all of them. However, if we had to pick one who does the most for the YA community in Dallas-Fort Worth, it’s undoubtedly Kristin Treviño of Irving Public Library. We did a little Q&A with Kristin so that you all could see how awesome she is!

1.  When (or why) did you decide to become a librarian?

We moved a lot when I was growing up (while my dad was in grad school and residency), from Texas, Mexico, New York Virginia and back to Texas, and I always found comfort in libraries. But I didn't seriously consider becoming a librarian until I started working as a library assistant in college. I was actually planning on law school but luckily found my calling and instead got my MLS (Masters in Library Science)

2.  What one YA book have you recommended to teens more than any other?

I recommend soo many books but probably the Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin.

3.  Who is your YA OTP?

My library teens just taught me what OTP means! I can't just choose one! I would say it's a tie between Puck Connelly and Sean Kendrick (Scorpio Races), Mara Dyer and Noah Shaw (Unbecoming of Mara Dyer) and Willowdean and Beau (Dumplin').

4.  Five of your favorite books?

This changes all the time and is sooo hard to pick:  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Austen, in my opinion, is actually the first YA author), Realm of Possibilities by David Levithan and Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater.

5.  One YA author you're embarrassed to say you've never read?

Up til earlier this year, I am very embarrassed to say SARAH DESSEN!! I know, I know kinda a prerequisite for being a teen librarian, but "Saint Anything" was by first Sarah Dessen read. I absolutely LOVED it and can't believe waited so long to read her books.

6.  You've spearheaded a ton of YA events for the Irving Library. What has been one of your favorite events so far?

Again so hard to choose! But I always love our annual summer YA author panels they are sooo much fun. The summer allows us to add a teen party component in the afternoon, before the moderated evening panel. During the party, teens and authors get to hang out making cool bookish crafts and eat cupcakes. It's a great way for teens to really met authors and put a face with the name on their favorite books and an awesome opportunity for authors to meet their young readers on a more personal level.

7.  So you're the mastermind behind the North Texas Teen Book Festival. What on earth possessed you to take on such a herculean task?

Cause I'm crazy and a glutton for punishment. After hosting and attending YA events for several years in the DFW area, it was very apparent that our reading community was hungry for a book festival on the same scale as those in Austin and Houston. We have a strong reading community and amazing teachers and librarians in North Texas and just knew we could pull something like this off!

We love you, Kristin! Viva YA!

+20 points

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The Beastly Bones! Taken by Amanda while on vacation at the Field Museum!

+3 points

Gamemaker Bonus: +3 MW

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A Single Stone (starring Rachel P.), with actual cover (starring not Rachel P.) for comparison.

+3 points

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The Weight of Feathers

(as it turns out, not very heavy at all)

+3 points

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(BR)EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEAR

Sorry not sorry for the pun!

Gamemaker Bonus: +5 FD +5 JD

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Photo Bonus #2: MELEE

Welcome to Book 2! 

You may have wondered why certain FYA-beloved books were struck from the master Photo Hunt list—this second scoring period’s photo hunt bonus is why. Those missing titles belong to a handful of authors who have graciously agreed to judge some all-or-nothing photo hunt melees, in which the team to create each author’s favorite title/cover interpretation will receive a (relatively) whopping +20.  

The Authors (& their chosen titles):

Adi Alsaid, Never Always Sometimes (FYA)

Ashley Hope Perez, Out of Darkness (FYA)

Jenny Han, Always and Forever, Lara Jean  (a yet-unpublished title! Stretch those creative muscles on this one and see if you can’t match or top the final cover design we’ll all be seeing next year!)

Jennifer E. Smith, Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between (FYA)

Siobhan Vivian, The Last Boy and Girl in the World (FYA)

The rules:

Keep reading

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Puzzle #2: We Solemnly Swear We Are Up to No Good

Time to get out your Google, ‘cause this puzzle isn’t going to solve itself. 

2015′s Grand Champion team, ATLFYA, elected to craft a puzzle as part of their prize package, and they, like the Goblet of Fire, are NOT holding back. So get out that precious vial of felix felicis you’ve been saving, and read on!

Logically, we understand why maps are a rarity in YA books. They’re expensive to create, require an insane attention to detail, and work best with unique settings (most of us can probably imagine a suburban neighborhood just fine). But irrationally? We would like maps for everything please, from fantasy lands to high schools cafeterias to Midwestern mini malls. 

This puzzle has FOUR tasks:

1. Determine the title/author of the books or book series containing the maps below.  We’ve noted whether we’re looking for a series name or book title.

2. Find the selected letter in each title and put them together in numerical order (i.e. the order they’re already in) to create a keyword that will serve as your charm in the next section.  

Keyword: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

3. Using your keyword, decipher the following book quote:

QCC EAUC LICQ UIPWHPN FIPC FTMS FIPC WAEE SHJJCG HURCP RSAQ RSAGLQ AGVIEVAGL FHJQ HGN OIIDQ HGN RPTC EIVC HGN RPHLCNY RPHLCNY EADC YIT WITENGR OCEACVC OTR UAGC RSAGLQ RII RSC OCQR IGCQ

4. Give us the title/author of the book from which this quote hails. 

Solutions will only be counted as correct if ALL FOUR bars are met. Correct guesses receive +10.

Email your guesses to [email protected]. Deadline for guessing is midnight PT, Sunday July 17.

As with the last puzzle, teams only get one guess and there are no speed bonuses, so take your time!  

Need more direction?

We’ve asked for the series title for all books in a series.  If we’ve asking for a book title instead, the book is a stand alone.

All series titles come from Goodreads, so if they got it wrong, we got it wrong. Check there first!

When finding letters, don’t count spaces, but do count articles (a, an, the) even at the beginning of a title.  For example, the 7th letter of The Grisha is “s”.

Ready? Get up to no good!

1) Series name, 8th letter

Keep reading

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Puzzle #1: A Clichéd Solution

First, some Casper-born Backwards cocktails to add to your cocktail party list. 

via Oil City

Why? Y’all deserve it! 100% accuracy across the 2016 Showdown Scoreboard!

Next, the solution:

Part One

(The) (Girls) at the Kingfisher Club

(The) (Girl) is Murder

(The) (Girl) of Ink and Stars

(The) (Girl) of Fire and Thorns

(no The) (Girl) Against the Universe

(The) (Girl) at Midnight

(The) (Girl) with the Wrong Name

(no The) (Girl) in the Blue Coat

(no The) (Girl) in the Shadows (though there is a small pub title with the THE—thanks, FYAON!)

Title #10:

(The) (Girl) Who Soared over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two

Part Two

For better or worse, these titles are all about (The) Girl(s). Alexis wasn’t as diligent as she should have been when copying the titles to paper from Goodreads, so titles that were supposed to be missing the “the” or had a plurality of girls were accepted in any format. 

Part Three

THE  BACKWARDS  MOONKIN

I.e., the awesome early autumn cocktail Alexis’ mixologist friend/one of the coolest people she knows whipped up at the end of the 2015 Showdown. We hope some of you take up the challenge of walnut syrup and make a few of these at your own cocktail parties this summer!

And that’s a wrap on 2016′s first puzzle. See you soon with Puzzle #2!

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Rachel P. found Love and Gelato in a hopeless place (aka teen hangout the Allen TX mall). + 3 points