Teen Harry Potter Scavenger Hunt in the Library

Last year the teens asked for a Percy Jackson scavenger hunt, this summer it was Harry Potter (YAY!!)

Because we had done a trivia based scavenger HP hunt earlier in the year with the younger HP book club group, this teen hunt was a little easier on me to create.

Planning a scavenger hunt in the library should be simple as long as you can come up with understandable clues, which I must admit is not my strong suit. In fact, (on reflection) my Percy Jackson hunt did quite a terrible job of explaining and hinting where things were. I'm much more pleased with Harry.

The goal of this hunt is to use the clue sheet to locate all 20 Chocolate Frog Cards and be the first team to do so. 

This clue sheet uses library furniture such as rugs, display cases and study carrels. For example, one clue says to "look for a piece of furniture in the shape of the deathly hallows" and gives a general area on where to find it. This is a little wooden display kiosk that's in the shape of a triangle.

Other clues would require players to use the library catalogue to locate certain material by either providing the author or book title in the clue. An example of this..."Many myths are spread about ginger haired people. Jacky Collis Harvey wrote a unique book on the history of these red haired folk. Locate this book for Ron's card." And of course if they look up this author they'll find we only have one title by her "Red: A History of the Redhead" and the card catalogue will tell them where to find this item.

The goal was to find all 20 chocolate frog cards printed off from Harry Potter Stuff on Tumblr.  This made preparation and set up really quick.  The cards were printed off on cardstock, cut out and hidden in plain sight. The clue sheets were printed off onto cute parchment paper.
Only one set of chocolate frog cards were hidden outside in our library garden. The others were hidden on furniture in the building or inside books.

Aside from written clues, there were 5 puzzle clues inspired by this HP Trivia Treasure Hunt. In fact, that particular game can be purchased from that link. The only thing you have to do is print it off (presumably) and provide clue locations. It looks very neat and was the basis for my HP book club trivia hunt.

Anyway, of these 5 puzzle clues, I made three word searches and two who-doesn't-belong type questions.

To discover the word search clue, players must solve the puzzle. The remaining letters will spell out the title and author of a book, which players must find.

Tip: Be sure to have these books ON HAND when you do this. Of the three word searches made, one book was checked out before I could grab it off the shelf

In the second set of puzzles, the kids had to decide who didn't belong in a house and then the correct answer would lead them to a non-fiction location where their card would be.

All in all, I'm not sure who had more fun with this- me, while I was creating it or the players who got to chase down their treasures. Nothing makes me happier then when I get to share my passion for Harry Potter with other fans. He's meant so much to me over the years.