Last week in the library we had all the ingredients of a mystery! First, we discussed a real mystery involving the stolen statue of the Lorax from the home of Dr. Seuss located in California. Discussing this real mystery, allowed us to use detective vocabulary such as “clue”, “crime”, “red herring”, “detective”, “evidence”, “mystery”, “suspect” and “witness”! Watch the news broadcast below.

Now that our detective skills were warmed up we were ready to solve the mysterious happening in the William O. Schaefer Library! Four of Dr. Seuss’ beloved characters were suspected of creating a mess directly inside of the library door! View the “Crime Scene” images below.

The students and I were extremely upset to find such a disrespectful mess in the library. We knew we needed to get to the bottom of this crime, but first we had to read each character’s alibi!

Yertle the Turtle alibi: It was 4:00 and I was baking some homemade bread. When it was finished, I took some bread over to my friend Hop On Pop. I asked if he wanted to go to the mall, but I got a text from Fox in Socks and Starbelly Sneetch asking if I wanted to go to the movies. My mom said I could go to the movie, but his mom said he had to do homework. He tried not to show it, but boy, was he mad. I had to leave Hop On Pop to make it to the movie on time. I told him if we had time, we’d stop by the library after the movie to hang out with him.

Starbelly Sneetch alibi: It was 5:00 and I heard a knock on my door. It was Fox in Socks. He came in and I turned off my music and put away my iPod. We played at my house until we got bored. We decided it would be fun to go to the movies. We texted Hop On Pop and Yertle the Turtle to see if they wanted to come, too. Everyone came to the movie except Hop on Pop. After the movie we couldn’t think of what to do so we walked around. We thought we might stop by the library to visit Hop On Pop. It started to rain as we walked so we stopped at Fox in Sock’s house to pick up some blankets to keep us dry on our walk.

Hop On Pop alibi: It was 5:00 and I know because I was looking at the clock when the doorbell rang. It was Yertle the Turtle. He had brought me some homemade bread! He asked if I wanted to go to the mall. My mom said, “No. I had to work on my homework at the library.” Yertle the Turtle got a text right after that asking if we wanted to go and see the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie. Bummer. I really wanted to see a movie and hated that I had to go to the library instead. Yertle the Turtle left to meet everyone for the movie. I headed to the library with my homework. My animal report was due on Monday and mom said I couldn’t do anything fun until I was finished with the report. The fun thing was that everyone came by the library after the movie and told me all about it. They had a great time. At 8:00, everyone had to head home. I had about thirty minutes left of homework, so I told them I’d have to stay around just a bit longer…

Fox in Socks alibi: I was sitting in my room when my mom came in and said when I finished my chores I could play. I decided to go over to Starbelly Sneetch’s house to play. We thought it would be fun to go to see a movie and texted our friends to see if they could come, too. When the movie was over we went by my house to get some blankets because it was raining and we didn’t want to get wet. Then, we headed to the library to visit Hop On Pop because he was doing homework there. At the library, I looked for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. I really liked the movie so I thought I would like the book.

Students gathered round the crime scene to take notes, discuss clues and look for evidence! Any accusations made MUST be backed up with evidence from either the crime scene or the suspect’s alibi!

So, I guess you want to know who did it!

Hop On Pop was guilty. Hop on Pop was mad he could not go to the movies with his friends. Instead, he had to go the library to work on his animal report which was about bees, bears LOVE honey! Many of you good detectives figured it out when you saw the pencil beside the nonfiction book, “All About Bees”!

Well, he was sitting in the “Honey Bear” rocking chair when his friends came to visit him after seeing the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” movie. He was so excited to see them, he jumped up and knocked the chair over! No one bothered to pick the chair up because they were so excited talking and telling Hop on Pop all about the movie! While his friends were at the library, Yertle the Turtle wanted to read “All About Geckos” and Fox in Socks wanted to read the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book. Hop on Pop said he would check the books out for them.

After his friends left the library, Hop on Pop noticed they dropped their movie tickets and forgot the blanket that was keeping them dry on the walk to visit him! He got mad when he realized he had missed such a good time with his friends! He turned and pulled all the Jan Brett books off the shelf! He was so frustrated that he still had so much work to do on his animal report that he ripped the “All About Geckos” book and threw down the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” in a fit of anger! Hop on Pop left the library.

Evidence: All of the other characters visited the library to visit Hop On Pop and they did not say anything about something being wrong in the library. It all happened after they left!

Thank you all for being such great detectives and supporting your theories with evidence! This was a tricky mystery!

Thank you to the Everything Library blog for inspiring and creating this fantastic mystery!