He sat down decisively on the couch and proclaimed to Ells with only a slight tremble in his voice, “I think we should examine the passage-”

(Finish that sentence and I'll know I can tell you about the next part! )

Heroic Dogs of Hincksville page: Hint 1

Mr. Hincks wants to play “Connect The Dogs.” Draw lines connecting some of the blue dots next to each dog. Remember to only connect the dots of adjacent dogs, and not any dogs that are diagonal from each other.

Heroic Dogs of Hincksville page: Hint 2

Fluffernutter’s name is circled in the list of dogs, so that might be a good place to start. Fluffernutter “visited” three of his neighbors, so you’ll need to connect him to three other dogs.

Heroic Dogs of Hincksville page: Hint 3

Since connections have to be to adjacent dogs, Fluffernutter has to be connected to Steve, Poopsie, and Baroness Dolly Doo.

Heroic Dogs of Hincksville page: Hint 4

When you look at the list again, you might notice that Steve “visited” two of his neighbors. You already know that Steve is connected to Fluffernutter, but the only other dog that can be connected to Steve is Jimbo.

Heroic Dogs of Hincksville page: Hint 5

Jimbo only “visited” one other dog, and you just found out that it was Steve. That means that Jimbo is not connected to Poopsie. Since Poopsie only “visited” two dogs, Poopsie must be connected to Fluffernutter and Mrs. Sneezy Snookums.

Heroic Dogs of Hincksville page: Hint 6

Since Mr. Hincks separated the dogs into groups of six, he must not consider those dogs adjacent to each other. In the top section both Baroness Dolly Doo and Mrs. Sneezy Snookums still need to be connected to one more dog each, so connect them to each other. That finishes all the connections in the top section.

Heroic Dogs of Hincksville page: Hint 7

In the middle section, Rizzo is connected to Waffles and Buck. Also, Sir Puppington is connected to Waffles, Buck, and Lou Lou M Barkerson. Gaston is not connected to any other dogs, but is still a good boy.

Heroic Dogs of Hincksville page: Hint 8

In the bottom section, Mascarpone is connected to Fudge and Koko Kringle. Maximus is connected to Koko Kringle and Wesley. Archibald is connected to Wesley.

Heroic Dogs of Hincksville page: Hint 9

After you’ve connected all the dots correctly, your connections will form the shape of the number 645, which is useful on a different page enclosed in this envelope.

Maxine Morton, Mystery Mechanic page: Hint 1

The ghosts on the back of the page are hiding words. Figure out what each ghost means to move forward.

Maxine Morton, Mystery Mechanic page: Hint 2

The cryptic clues above each set of ghosts is directing you towards a specific word, and each ghost represents a letter of that word.

Maxine Morton, Mystery Mechanic page: Hint 3

Piece #1 asks you to start off with “a sense.” The direction to “cut off the head” is asking you to remove the first letter. Finally you need to replace the letter that you removed with the last letter of the thing that leads you to a pot of gold.

Maxine Morton, Mystery Mechanic page: Hint 4

For Piece #1, a sense could be the word “taste.” Replace the first letter of “taste” with the last letter of “rainbow” to create the word “waste.” You can know that you’re correct because waste is another word for garbage. The word from Piece #1 is WASTE.

Maxine Morton, Mystery Mechanic page: Hint 5

Piece #2 asks you to remove “head bugs” from a word, so you’ll need a word that includes “lice”. Then remove a golf warning from a bunch of trees, so you’ll need a word that includes “fore.”

Maxine Morton, Mystery Mechanic page: Hint 6

For Piece 2, start with “police” and remove “lice” to get “po.” Take “forest” and remove “fore” to get “st”. You can verify that post is correct, because post is another word for mail. The word from Piece #2 is POST.

Maxine Morton, Mystery Mechanic page: Hint 7

To get Piece 3, convert “a Roman X” into a word. Using Roman numerals, you’ll know that “ten” is going to be at the end of the word for Piece 3.

Maxine Morton, Mystery Mechanic page: Hint 8

The first part of a room you cook in (kitchen) is added to the Roman numeral X (ten) to get “kitten.” You can verify that’s correct because of the pun referring to the answer as “a bit catty.” The word from Piece #3 is KITTEN.

Maxine Morton, Mystery Mechanic page: Hint 9

Once you have the correct word for each of the three pieces, you can use the ghost icons to decode the instruction that Mr. Hincks has drawn at the bottom of the page. Find the ghost that matches one of the ghosts in the word that you know, and replace it with the same letter. For example, the very first ghost that Mr. Hincks drew looks the same as the third ghost in WASTE or the third ghost in POST. Since the third letter of each of those words is S, the first letter from Mr. Hincks’s message must be S.

Maxine Morton, Mystery Mechanic page: Hint 10

The instruction from Mr. Hincks is SKIP STEP TWO, which is useful on a different page enclosed in this envelope.

Poetry in Motion page: Hint 1

In order to find a secret message from Mr. Hincks, you’ll need to recreate the haiku that he wrote, using the method of “possibility poetry.”

Poetry in Motion page: Hint 2

Mr. Hincks told you that he started at the word “Be” and ended at the word “Enigmas.” You can also know that those are correct, because they match the number of syllables in the blanks on the right side of the page.

Poetry in Motion page: Hint 3

From “Be,” find a two syllable word for the second blank. The only adjacent words that are two syllables are “Over” and “Always.” However, Mr. Hincks has written down the moves that he’s made, and he never moved directly up (like you would need to do to go from “Be” to “Over”), so the second word must be “Always.”

Poetry in Motion page: Hint 4

By using the number of syllables of adjacent words and the directions that Mr. Hincks moved while making his poem, you can recreate the haiku that he wrote.

Line 1: Be always kooky
Line 2: Entertain the wanderlust
Line 3: I choose enigmas

Poetry in Motion page: Hint 5

After you’ve recreated Mr. Hincks’s haiku, you’ll need to collect one letter from each word in the haiku to see his hidden message.

Poetry in Motion page: Hint 6

In the grid of words, the first letter of every word is bolded. When you collect the first letters from Mr. Hincks’s haiku, it reveals the message BAKE TWICE, which is useful on a different page enclosed in this envelope.

The Art and Joy… of Cooking page: Hint 1

Mr. Hincks has indicated that you’ll need to fill in some blanks before you do anything with this recipe. The other pages in this envelope will help you figure out how to fill in those blanks.

The Art and Joy… of Cooking page: Hint 2

The blanks next to “Woof” can be filled in with the result that you got from the Heroic Dogs of Hincksville. The blanks next to “Boo” can be filled in with the result that you got from the ghostly drawings. The blanks next to “Snaps” can be filled in with the result that you got from the poetry page.

The Art and Joy… of Cooking page: Hint 3

After you’ve filled in the blanks at the bottom, you’ll need to follow the directions of the recipe, keeping careful track of time. Each time that you end up with will help you find two letters of the answer.

The Art and Joy… of Cooking page: Hint 4

Mr. Hincks has told you to start at 6:45. If you were to draw in clock hands on the watch next to the directions, those hands would be pointing at B for the hour and U for the minute.

The Art and Joy… of Cooking page: Hint 5

The recipe tells you to boil next, but Mr. Hincks has told you to SKIP STEP TWO. Instead proceed to step three, which takes two hours and thirty minutes. At the end of that time, it is 9:15. The hour hand is pointing at T and the minute hand is pointing at I.

The Art and Joy… of Cooking page: Hint 6

The next step is to bake for six hours and fifteen minutes. When you’re done with that step the time is 3:30. The hour hand is pointing at M and the minute hand is pointing to S. Mr. Hincks has told you to BAKE TWICE, but the instructions also say that you should remove the dish from the oven “even if it needs to bake more later.”

The Art and Joy… of Cooking page: Hint 7

The family secret step is actually to bake the dish a second time for six hours and fifteen minutes. After the second bake, it is 9:45. The hour hand is pointing at T and the minute hand is pointing at U.

The Art and Joy… of Cooking page: Hint 8

Step six doesn’t mention a time, so you don’t have to collect any letters. The next timed step is for 75 minutes, which takes the time to 11:00. At that point the hour hand is pointing at the C, and the minute hand is pointing at the K.

The Art and Joy… of Cooking page: Hint 9

After you’ve gone through the entire recipe according to Mr. Hincks’s instructions and collected two letters at every time, you come up with BUT I’M STUCK, which is the end of what Ernie said and the answer to this envelope! Enter that into the answer box so that Mr. Hincks will know that he can continue telling you about the book.