Copy of ‘Jumanji' book gets returned to New Jersey school library 43 years overdue

There's a mystery behind a book returned to a New Jersey school library — 43 years overdue.

The mysterious package was delivered to Stillman Elementary School in Tenafly during the last full week of April. Inside, it held the school library's copy of the book "Jumanji" that had been checked out in May 1982.

Aside from the long-overdue book was a money order for $40. No note, no return address.

"Opening the book and thinking, who's sending this and what could it be?" said school librarian Jill Brave. "This was its own natural lesson that fell into our laps of another way of researching ... It made me feel good that someone took the time to do this."

Instead of quietly putting the vintage book back on the shelf, Stillman's librarian decided to get her students involved.

The students' research was to connect the dots to figure out who returned the book. The money order came from Sugarloaf, Pennsylvania. The package itself was mailed from the Drums, Pennsylvania, post office nearby.

"The suspense to know who checked it out, whenever I'm bored, I always have something to think about," said 9-year-old Sanjana Sen.

The book had been checked out more than four decades ago by a second-grader named Jessica, with a note from then-librarian Mrs. Wilbur to return it within five days. By the time the book finally made its way back to the school library, it was 15,700 days late.

"Now that they're older, they probably feel more guilty because it's been 43 whole years," said Sanjana.

The students even did research into Mrs. Wilbur.

"We got to Google and we got to see a lot of cool things about her," said 7-year-old Gal Ayzenberg.

The detective work has fueled a lot of conversations at the K-5 school — as well as at least one website, coded by a 10-year old.

"It can search for ZIP codes and address, and it can also find people," said Miles Grinshtein, the young coder behind the site. "Everyone is curious about the whole thing and you want to solve it."

The students also questioned if "Jessica" would prefer to remain anonymous.

"It's kind of rude to try to find them when they don't want to get found," said Sanjana. "We still want to say thank you, so maybe if they see this right now, they will just reveal themselves."

Whether or not students find the former student who sent the book, they said they have enjoyed piecing together the clues and using their imaginations to solve a problem.