The Mystery of the Carnival Prize (5 page)

The librarian told Cam and Eric that with the money from the fifth-grade carnival he bought a new encyclopedia. Inside the front cover of each volume he wrote, “This encyclopedia is a gift from the fifth grade.”

Then the librarian took two mystery books off his desk and said, “Ms. Benson gave these books to the library. Look at what she wrote inside them.”

Cam opened one of the books and read aloud, “ ‘These books were given to the school library in honor of two great solvers of mysteries, Jennifer Jansen and Eric Shelton.’ ”

When Cam and Eric left the library, Bert and Sylvia were busy working. Bert was putting books away on the shelves. Sylvia was sitting at a desk, fixing torn books with tape. Bert and Sylvia pretended not to see Cam and Eric.

Cam and Eric had borrowed the two new mysteries. As they left school, Cam told Eric, “I don’t think the mysteries in these books will be as easy to solve as the carnival mystery.”

“Sure they’ll be easy,” Eric said. “We’ll read carefully. We’ll look for clues. And when you get near the end of the book, if you want to remember a clue from the beginning, you don’t have to look back. Just close your eyes and say,
‘Click’!”