Something is amiss in the Woodland Hills Elementary School library and the fifth grade classes have to solve the puzzle.

Just before Halloween, each fifth grade class, during its library time, was greeted with crime scene tape across the library door and the windows blacked out. Library media specialist Allegra Robertson greeted each class in the hall and solemnly told the students that Mr. Westing had died and they were invited to enter the library and solve the riddle so they could open the treasure chest and see what was inside.

The news caused many students to gasp and open their eyes wide in surprise.

When Robertson told the students to “Enter if you dare to play the Westing game,” every student’s hand shot into the air. Students were divided into teams of four to five, given flashlights and told what section of the library they were responsible for before being allowed to enter.

Students entered a library lit only by their flashlights and some battery operated candles and ghostly music playing. Each team was directed to a section of the library and told they must find clues that would lead them to a key belonging to a treasure chest where they would find their reward.

The entire exercise was an escape room inspired by the book “The Westing Game” by Ellen Raskin. Students must search their designated area of the library for clues in order to find their key to the treasure chest, which cannot be opened without all five keys, Robertson said.

One group had to search through shelves and hollowed out books to find puzzle pieces that, once put together, revealed the combination to a lockbox. Another team had to use invisible ink pens to reveal the riddle on the wall that said, “use me to see the unseen”. Another group had to use a hands-on guide on sign language to find their clues.

Students aren’t told that Mr. Westing’s “body” is resting in an aisle between two rows of books. (The “body” was a shirt and pair of jeans stuffed with newspaper and a hat pulled over the face and tennis shoes on.)

As each team finds their key, they insert it into the treasure chest and wait for the others to solve their riddles.

The team of Lincoln Vaughan, Buay Jikany, Aubrey Rucker and Mollie Stafford was the first one to find their key. Their team had to use the invisible ink pen to decipher the clue on the poster on the wall. The invisible ink showed that time was the key, they said. That clue led them to a Goosebumps book that was misfiled that had the key in it.

“We figured out the clock. The time on the clock gave us the combination to the box. The clue was inside the box, which gave us the key to the book,” Stafford said. “It was kind of challenging. We had to use teamwork.”

Had they noticed the body in the library?

Rucker quickly turned her head in the direction indicated, which is where the team was sleuthing.

“I think the cops took the body. That’s what cops do, they clean up the crime scene,” Vaughan said.

“That’s him, who got murdered,” Rucker said, referring to Mr. Westing.

“He was the richest man in the city. His money is right there (in the treasure chest). Someone didn’t like him,” Jikany said.

What did they think was in the treasure chest?

“Money,” Vaughan said.

“Candy,” Jikany said.

“Either his money or we get to figure out who murdered him,” Stafford said. “I hope they say why they killed him.”

No matter what was in the chest, they said they enjoyed the activity.

“It was very fun. I got to feel like I was a detective,” Vaughan said. “Finding clues and the pen was the most fun.”

“I liked how we found the invisible pen in the book to unlock the chest,” Jikany said.

At last, the final team found its clue and the honor of unlocking the chest was given to Marcus Garner. The students, in the blacked-out library, crowded around the chest and shone their flashlights on it as Gardner inserted the last key and popped the locks to reveal a chest full of Halloween candy.

Garner talked about the pressure he felt as the entire class waited for him to reveal the contents of the chest, and their reward.

“I play sports, so I’m used to pressure,” he said. “I thought it was going to be 3D or something like a fidget or a toy. The activity was fun. We had to find the clues and everything.”

Robertson said one of the goals of the escape room is to create interest in the Westing book.

“I want them to be excited about the book,” Robertson said.

The activity also tests how familiar they are with the library. Clues lead to different kinds of books and students have to know where they are.

“They work together and stretch the brain. They have to be creative and work in teams they don’t normally work with,” Robertson said. “It stretches them socially, academically and mentally.”

“We really don’t help them at all. It is really fun to watch them figure it out,” said media assistant Jessika Bradford.