Earlier today, as one of our staff went to empty our book drop, we found that our friend (term used very loosely) “The Mystery Thief” had delivered another letter related to the theft of our books. You can visit our What Happened to Wellington website to view the letter, get a recap of what has been going on so far with the theft, and  find out how you can help us in our search for the lost mysteries…

For the first time ever, all seven of The 39 Clues authors unite to answer kids’ most pressing questions in a LIVE webcast event!

Tune in as the New York Times bestselling group of author-agents inspire readers with behind-the-scenes information on the Cahills, provide insight into their favorite parts of the Clue hunt, and even reveal explosive new information.

Visit www.the39clues.com/accessgranted for more information and to view the live webcast at 4:00 PM ET on Tuesday, August 31st. The webcast is free to all, and will be available as a replay immediately following the event.

Ok everyone,  after talking over how best to let you all be involved in helping find these missing books, it was decided that we would create a website just for this purpose.  The website: http://www.cranburypubliclibrary.org/wellington will be your one new destination to get up to date information and news surrounding the search for the missing copies of “the Curious Incident of the dog in the Nighttime”.

On the website, you can also subscribe to updates by email so that you can be one of the first people to know when something new breaks in the case.

We will continue to update the webpage if and when we hear from “The Mystery Thief”, as well as any further intel we receive from any of you regarding the search. Please take a look and let us know what you think by adding a comment.

Also, feel free to let us know if and how you would like to help in the search. For your convenience we have also placed a link to the new website on our sidebar for easy access (Look for the upside down dog symbol). We hope you can join us in our search!

Ok.. so we get back to the library after the weekend (we were closed for rug cleaning) and one of our staff went to empty the book drop and found an envelope. The envelope was just your standard plain white, with a strange symbol printed on it:

The staff member showed it to the rest of us here and it was quickly identified as the picture on the cover of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime”. Weird, right?

Well, get ready for this. We opened the envelope and it contained what can only be described as a ransom note. It was not asking for ransom per se, but it just looked like one. You know.. like the kind you see in a movie with the letters cut from newspapers and magazines  to make words. Here is a copy of the letter (which you will note also has the symbol on it):

Needless to say, the letter reveals that the books we thought we lost last week are not lost at all. They have been stolen!! This person, who calls him/herself the “The Mystery Thief” admits to having pilfered the books,  indicates there might be a way to get them back,  and tells us s/he will “be in touch”. What kind of game is this person trying to play?

We are asking now more than ever that if anyone has seen anything suspicious either last Wednesday or even over the weekend, please let us know. We will be sure to keep you informed if and when we hear anything from this “mystery thief”. In fact, we are trying to think of a way to allow you our patrons to be able to be more active in helping us find these books.

We re looking for help in finding a recent shipment of books that appears to have gone missing here at the library. We feel that we have exhausted every idea we can think of, and are hoping that someone out there who visited the library on Tuesday might know something.

As a quick background, the library ordered ten copies of the Mark Haddon book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime”. The book is one of several that were chosen for the One Book NJ initiative. The library was planning on doing some programming in support of this literacy effort and so we ordered  extra copies.

We know the box came in on Tuesday (8/18) morning. One of our staff members signed for the box, then placed it on our processing table near the window. Around 3 o’clock or or so, when she went to actually begin working with the books, the box was gone. We mean really..really gone. We have checked everywhere in the library…twice, as well as asking all staff members if they might have seen where it went.

We also contacted the Cranbury school to see if it was inadvertently moved or mistakenly taken for some reason. They have assured us that no one from the school saw or moved the box. Therefore, we are currently at an impasse.

We are asking that if anyone saw anything (or anyone) suspicious at the library on 8/18 between 12-2:30 pm, please let us know. We are hoping that someone may have seen something that could help us recover this box. We are anxious to continue to plan for our One Book NJ activities

Feel free to contact us by phone, email or in person if you have any information that you think might be useful. Thanks!

The library is currently exhibiting the digital photographs of children and young adults attending the Cranbury Art and Technology Camp this summer. Stop the library and visit the adult book section to some of the amazing work these kids have been doing throughout the summer! Photographs will remain on exhibit through August.

Hope all of you have been enjoying this summer season (or at least staying cool with all this hot weather!). As you may know, our Summer Reading program is in full swing and we just wanted to give you a taste of some of the  programs and crafts we have been offering here at the library for kids of all ages. Remember that we still have two more weeks to go of fun summer reading programs, so check our calendar and stop in anytime!!

You can continue to read and log your minutes for the program through August 27th!!