By Mariella Bishop
The Lovett library has always been a hot spot for students to hang out when they want to study, eat lunch, play games, or participate in the fun activities organized by the library staff.
This year, as head librarian, Mr Bowden said, they really stepped things up with the new mystery scavenger hunt.
With Halloween approaching, the library crew wanted to create something fun but also with a little mystery to match the spooky season. They also wanted to tie the activity to the display at the front of the library featuring popular mystery and thriller novels.
Planning so many new and exciting activities can be challenging, but Mr. Bowden stated that at the end of the school year last year, he and Mrs. Northup wrote out a list of ideas they had in mind on a giant piece of poster board for them to review. For each month, there would be ideas lined up for them to choose from.
For October, the idea had been brewing in Mr Bowden’s head for a while. “I already had an idea of what the title would be before I even knew what I would create,” he said.
He wanted it to be a mystery-themed event, consisting of challenging clues for a riddle of some sort. With those key concepts in mind, he began to create the clues and somewhat challenging questions. The concept of creating a mystery book was to encourage students to read it once they found it, as Mr. Bowden said it was one he had picked out that he had enjoyed and would love other kids to read.
It took him about a week to create the clues, determine where to place them, and decide on the grand prize. He even asked a few middle schoolers if the questions were too difficult or too easy to solve. The common response was that they seemed difficult but not too bad; all of them were able to solve the questions in around 10 minutes.
Still, Mr. Bowden didn’t know, while creating this hunt, how long it was going to take. Even though it took around 10 minutes for middle schoolers to solve the riddles, he wasn’t sure how much time it would take for them to locate the books and the hidden clues around the library. He was also concerned that he had made the questions too difficult and that people would struggle to solve them.
“It turns out I was completely wrong, and I guess the questions were too easy,” he said.
Students completed the puzzle within a day, with the fastest time being 7 minutes.
The first student to complete the riddle and discover the name of the book was Ansley Hall, who completed it within only a day. She claimed the clues weren’t hard and it was quite fun, plus she enjoyed the prize. Since she was the first person to finish, she received the grand prize, which turned out to be a free slice of pizza at the cafe.
“Nothing too much but also a nice gift,” Mr Bowden said.
Apparently, students who finished the hunt after it had been solved still got a treat, just not a whole pizza from the cafe. They got a piece of candy of their choosing, which is still a nice Halloween treat.
The unknown mystery author was identified as J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings, and the only remaining mystery is the whereabouts of the unreturned library books. That hasn’t been solved yet.
As the library moves to a new location in the future, Mr Bowden said that yes, they want to continue with fun activities in the new location and possibly throughout the upper school. The library staff would like to continue creating more exciting activities and projects for students to enjoy.
So next time if you hear whispers and eerie noises coming from the mystery shelf in the new library, it’s probably just Mr. Bowden planning the next scavenger hunt.
