The story of a children’s book that took a 6,000-mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean and back has created quite a stir, according to Norfolk Library Director Ann Havemeyer, who has been interviewed by both BBC radio and NBC-CT.
The book, a copy of “Animal Ark,” was checked out of a library in Swaffham, Norfolk County, England, and was turned in at the Norfolk, Connecticut, library this month.
The book had been dropped off in the local library’s outside return box and Havemeyer told the BBC that the library staff had no idea who left it and was perplexed about what to do with it until a chance encounter with English visitors provided a solution.
According to Havemeyer, the library workers “almost couldn’t believe it” when only a week after the book was discovered two tourists from Norfolk, England, appeared in the library. After chatting with the librarian, they agreed to transport the little book back to its proper home. “We are very happy it is back in its rightful home,” Havemeyer said.
The English library’s staff was equally delighted with the international odyssey the little volume had taken. “Quite how someone got confused and returned it to the wrong place, we have no idea,” they posted on Facebook. “Swaffham Library is very different to the Norfolk Library. Oh, and there’s the fact it’s literally thousands of miles away and across an entire ocean. But still, it made it there, and it has now made it back!”