Sixth-grade students on a field trip to Gillette Castle in East Haddam are surprised to discover that the famous landmark has gone missing.

Now it's up to them to travel the state, piecing together clues to solve the mystery of the castle's disappearance and attempt to return it to its scenic perch overlooking the Connecticut River.

That's roughly the plot of "The Great Connecticut Caper," a serialized suspense storybook that unfolds before the readers' eyes.

There's no skipping ahead to discover how the book's nail-biting mystery is solved because only one chapter and illustration is being released every two weeks online until June. The first chapter was posted on Jan. 4. And because every one of the e-book's 12 chapters is written and illustrated by a different author and artist, they don't know what comes next, either.

The storybook for fourth through seventh graders is being published online by The Connecticut Center for the Book at Connecticut Humanities, with a grant from the New Alliance Foundation.

The concept is modeled after a serialized episodic book that the National Center for the Book at the Library of Congress released in 2011 titled "The Exquisite Corpse Adventure," reportedly read by hundred of thousands of children and adults across the U.S. and abroad.

Amanda Roy, program officer for CT Humanities, says the e-book is a way to expose children statewide to Connecticut's rich cultural heritage and literary and artistic talent - "and what better way than a mystery story?" she notes.

According to Roy, Connecticut is the first state to create a state-specific, collaborative mystery story that taps into the skills of its own writers and artists.

"The Great CT Caper" is a collaborative effort, not only between the artists and writers, but also with the general public.

CT Humanities picked five state landmarks and did a poll on its website and on social media to let residents decide which landmark would go missing. The most votes went to East Haddam's Gillette's Castle - a 24-room mansion designed to replicate a medieval castle.

"It fits perfectly for a mystery because William Gillette is famous for his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on stage and in film," Roy says.

The benefits, Roy says, of publishing the story as an e-book is that computers are now a way of life and an e-book provides a great way to connect with kids.

"The book can be read on a tablet or phone, it converts very nicely on mobile devices," Roy points out. "It can reach kids where they are - they can access the story and everything that goes along with it," including scavenger hunts, online puzzles, games, interactive maps and writing and illustration contests, which all tie into the story's scenes and plot."

"The Great CT Caper" can be used to enrich learning on many levels. Roy has a background in education and is writing Common Core-compatible curriculum with guidance from the NEAG School of Education at UConn, the State Department of Education and the National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance. Besides being fun for families to read together, the e-book can to be used by schools and libraries to connect the story to lessons in art, reading and writing.

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection also is onboard with its "No Child Left Inside" program to create connections between the story and state parks.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

CT Humanities employed a juried selection process to choose the book's 12 volunteer authors and illustrators.

Writer Hope-Denée Fortier of Madison wrote Chapter 3 (the most recent chapter posted online). This is her first experience writing a children's story.

"I am always looking for new ways to challenge myself and tell stories," she says. "This was an opportunity to be part of a historical Connecticut project and collaborate with other writers and artists that I've never met or consulted with, which was fascinating to me and an exercise in complete creative trust."

Fortier concedes that writing the chapter was quite a challenge - but one that she was up for.

"Chapter 1's writer set the story in present day during a school trip and Chapter 2's writer introduced seemingly ancient Scottish characters, so I had to weave both ideas together, move the story forward, and leave the door open for the Chapter 4 writer to continue the story," she explains.

Fortier chose to feature Waterford's Harkness Memorial State Park in her chapter.

"From a storytelling perspective, I wanted a landmark that was visually distinctive," she says. "Harkness is visually distinctive and one of Connecticut's great treasures."

Fortier makes the point that although the Great CT Caper is innovative in its creation and delivery, it's also paying homage to serialized storytelling that was popular in the 19th and 20th centuries with magazines, radio, books, comic books and, eventually, television, in which, she says "the element of suspense of waiting for the next installment to find out what happens, captured and encouraged imagination and creativity in audience's minds."

Jon Buller of New London is illustrating Chapter 6 of "The Great CT Caper," which is scheduled for release March 15 - and although we can't give away his artwork in advance, Buller talked about his part in the project.

Buller and his wife Susan Schade have published more than 30 books for young people over about as many years. Their main focus was early readers (preschool-grade 3) up until 2006, when they started doing graphic novels for middle graders - with a new one scheduled for publication in September.

Buller was given a week to do his illustration and says as soon as he read the last line in the previous chapter, "I just saw a picture and knew that's it, and so I did it."

His illustration is hand drawn in pen and ink and all the color is done with Photoshop.

"One of the reasons I thought it would be fun to do this," he says, "is I just got new plug-in brushes for Photoshop that give me more painterly texture than you usually get from (the computer program)."

Besides working with his wife, Buller has never done a collaborative project of this scope, which, like Fortier, he compares to a creative process that was around before the invention of e-books. In this case, the Exquisite Corpse format, invented by the 20th-century surrealists - a method by which words or images are collectively assembled with each collaborator adding a sequence to a composition.

"I think this is a challenge because it could be a huge mess or pulled off as a story that works," Buller says. "There's a little bit of improvising and seeing if people land on their feet or not, so that's sort of fun."

http://cthumanities.org/c4b/ctcaper