Bookshelf Scavenger Hunt (Serena Stellington Edition)

I am, of course, the last person to catch up on this challenge. No surprise there. But better late then never, right?

Right?

*looks around nervously as the rooms falls into silence*

Oh. Okay. Well, anyway, here goes my journey into my bookshelf! Let's see if I can find everything on the list!

Find an author’s name or title with the letter z in it

The Mysterious Benedict Society: Mr. Benedict's Book of Perplexing Puzzles, Elusive Enigmas, and Curious Conundrums by Trenton Lee Stewart. Not gonna lie, I was sort of panicking as I finished scanning my first shelf (I have four shelves of books) without finding a single Z book or author. I was a bit worried I wouldn't find one, but eventually I did find this absolute classic. It's a fun book from the Mysterious Benedict Society series, full of puzzles and riddles to test your smarts and get your brain to work.

Find a classic

The Original Illustrated "Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I love reading it, even though by the time Holmes grandly explains how he deduced the culprit, I'm still in my corner trying to figure out how to pronounce all the 18'th century words.

Find a book with a key on it

Ugh, I couldn't find one. I thought for sure one of the Mysterious Benedict Society books would have at least some sort of key, but alas, 'twas not be.

Find something on your bookshelf that’s not a book

This was probably the hardest part of the challenge since I'm something of a hoarder and tend to overfill my shelves with pretty, sparkly items. My favorite though is probably the teeny tiny figurine of my character Jovie, made for me by my sister. It's SO cute and beautiful, with shiny gold paint and a lovely red-orange blend on Jovie's dress.

Find the oldest book on your shelf

Well, if we're going with old as in the story inside the book being written a long time ago, I'd have to go with Sherlock Holmes again. It was first written in the 1880's, although the book the stories are in was put together in the 2000's, I believe. The oldest physical book, though, would probably be Twelve Centuries of English Poetry. It was put together in 1910, stuck in a library, and then thrown out, where someone in my family rescued it and put it on their shelf. Don't get me started talking about it, because I'll rant for hours about the large, obnoxious CONFISCATED stamped three times on the inside cover. Three times!! Couldn't they have just given it to someone in a decent condition instead of ruining it then throwing it out the back door? Would it have been so hard to find someone who liked poetry and give it to him or her???

Sorry, sorry, I said I wouldn't rant (much). Okay, moving on!

Find a book with a girl on the cover

The Two Princesses of Bamarre, by Gale Carson Levine. It actually has two girls on the cover! A very strange but lovely book about courage and the love of sisters. (Also the artwork on the cover is gorgeous)

Find a book with a boy on the cover

Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson. (Kudos to the author's parents for picking such a cool name for their daughter, btw). The front of Mark of the Dragonfly just has a dragonfly. Shocking, I know. But the back cover has the protagonist, Piper, her friend Anna, and a boy whose name I can't remember, but he was pretty cool. I wasn't a huge fan of his and Piper's little romance since they were just 13, but it was still a wonderful book. (Don't worry, the romance thing isn't a spoiler. it was kind of obvious throughout the story)

Find a book that has an animal in it

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. My word. It was such a gorgeous, poetic story that made me cry and laugh and smile and just feel throughout the whole thing. Would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Find a book with a male protagonist

Mister Max by Cynthia Voigt. A truly intriguing book about a boy solving mysteries. There was something about it that gave off a very unreal, unsettling vibe, but I've never been able to figure out what it is, exactly. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes cake and mysteries. Also the illustrations were really cool

Find a book with only words on it

Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer (Surprisingly enough his name is pronounced "Owen"). The cover of the older edition is a little bland without anything but words and a metal background, but the fact that it's shiny makes up for the lack of images!

Find a book with gold lettering

I know I already mentioned this one, but I'm gonna have to use it again. The Mark of the Dragonfly. I had a gold book with white letter, a crazy amount of silver books, but only one had gold lettering. I don't even have any with yellow lettering!

Find a diary (true or fiction)

The Horse Diaries series. Okay, I cheated a bit on this one since the shelf in the center of the five-shelf bookcase belongs to my sister, not me, but there was a long row of diary books from the POV's of horses, and I couldn't think of any that I owned. (I can't say I looked really hard, though.)

Find an author with a common name

Definitely not Jaleigh Johnson. I'd have to go with Chuck Black. He wrote twelve of the books on my shelf, which also happen to be some of my favorites. Evelyn Knight and I are doing a series of reviews on his books, so check out the ones we've already posted and be on the lookout for even more to come!

Find a book with a close up of something on it

The Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner. It has a close up of a gal holding this freakish-looking hand/hook thing. Definitely one of my more mature books (it has some language and violence), so I would NOT recommend it to everyone, but it was very well written with an intelligent, complicated plot. Also the protagonist's quips are hilarious.

Find a book that takes place in an early time period

The Mystery of the CLockwork Sparrow by Katherine Woodfine. It takes place at the dawn of the 19'th century in London. The descriptions of the scenery are amazing, not to mention how things such as clothes and food are described so richly I almost felt as if I were there.

Find a hardcover book without a dust jacket

Irish Fairy and Folktales

Find a teal/turquoise book

The Doll People Set Sail by Ann Martin and Laura Godwin. A bit of a childish book, but I love the artwork of the previous three books in the series. The fourth one was a bit disappointing as the artist was replaced. It's still wonderful artwork, but lacks the lifelike quality of the first three.

Find a book with stars on it

Passages: Volume One of the Marus Manuscripts by Paul McCusker. The biggest thing on the cover are the two hugemongus moons. If you squint hard enough you can make out itty bitty dots of stars behind them.

Find the longest book you own

*sighs as I pull out the Sherlock Holmes book again*

Find the shortest book you own

This is going to make some people laugh... Oh well. The shortest book would be Tutus and Toe Shoes, a My Little Pony book about 25 pages long. It's an I Can Read! book that I have owned for basically forever. It was a gift from the fabulous Kamama when we were little kids, and every time I see it I think of her! It might be a book for small children, but there's absolutely no way I'm ever going to stop loving it. (I would like to clarify that it's the only I Can Read! book in my 100+ book collection, which shows just how special it is)

Find a book with multiple POVs

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester. It's a book that I once adored, but as I read the rest of the books in the series it became kind of bland. The books are very inconsistent with each other, with more plot holes than I could shake a stick at. Now I, as a writer who struggles with plotting, hope I don't sound too harsh. I get how hard it is to plot a book. But in the Girl who Could Fly series, a published set of books, it's extremely cringy at how sloppy the plot is. But please don't let that deter you from reading them! You might like 'em more than I do.

Find a shiny book

Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. OH! And I just saw that The Opal Deception three books down has shiny gold letters! Cool, I have two books with gold letters, then. Anyway, the first Artemis Fowl book is suuuuuper shiny. Lots of gold and shimmery-ness. It makes my heart happy to have sparkly things on my shelf. I'm kind of like a crow; if it's shiny I will be taking it.

Find a book with flowers on it

The Green Ember by S. D. Smith. It's actually not mine. I borrowed it from a dear friend of mine who loves reading, and it's been on my shelf for a little while now because I haven't been able to get it back to her. *cries* Anyway, there are little, fuzzy purple flowers dotting the grass in the picture on the front. It's such a beautiful book, inside and out

Oh, looks like I'm done! Wow, this was a lot of fun. Thanks so much Kamama for putting this together. I've enjoyed getting to read the other writers' hunt results. Hopefully we'll get to do more in the future :D

Keep writing and eat plenty of cheesecake! (Y'all get to be the first to suffer from my new catchphrase)

-Serena Stellington