Special 1999 Scavenger Hunt Rules
This year's hunt is a little different: you have to find your own list. Specifically, your team must find two children's* "learn the alphabet" picture books. Your team's list is then the list of items that are depicted. For example, if one of your books says that "A is for Apple", then "apple" is one of your items.
(*If you can find an adult-level book that is clearly a satire of children's picture books (e.g. "A is for Adjustable Rate Mortgage, B is for Bandwidth"), well yeah, you can use that. But the judges insist that it MUST have the same style as a children's alphabet book. (It must have pictures, for example.) No, dictionaries are NOT in the same style as children's alphabet books.)
Each book is worth 20 points and each item is worth 10 points. A 10% bonus will be given for the first object for each letter. If there are more than four teams, the bonus will be 20% for the first letter and 10% for the second letter. You'll get a 100 point bonus if you find one item for every letter of the alphabet.
Your team can use two books' lists, giving a maximum of 52 items that your team may redeem. As soon as you use a book to get points for an item, you are stuck with that book, and may not replace it later.
You can only use an object once. If both of your books say that "A is for Apple", you only get 10 points for "A", regardless of how many apples you bring in. Furthermore, you can't use an apple to get credit for both "apple" and "fruit".
If your books have (combined) more than two objects for a letter, you may choose any two of the items for that letter. For example, if one book says that "A is for Apple, Aardvark, and Aluminum", and the other says that "A is for Apple and Artichoke", you may get credit for any two of apple, aardvark, artichoke, and aluminum.
We will be a little stricter on partial credit than in past years. If the book says that "A is for Apple" next to a picture of a piece of red fruit, you will get no credit for bringing in an Apple-brand computer.
You may use non-English books, but no credit will be given for letters that are outside the 26-letter English alphabet. Furthermore, the judges will not give credit for words they don't know, so bring a dictionary for that language as well.
