NCW Libraries

Presents a guide to codemaking, codebreaking, and their role in history, describing different types of codes and ciphers, discussing codebreaking and concealment techniques, and including brief stories about exciting moments in the history of the art.

Many call the fifteenth-century codex, commonly known as the "Voynich Manuscript," the world's most mysterious book. Written in an unknown script by an unknown author, the manuscript has no clearer purpose now than when it was rediscovered in 1912 by rare books dealer Wilfrid Voynich. The manuscript appears and disappears throughout history, from the library of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II to a secret sale of books in 1903 by the Society of Jesus...

Amy and Dan Cahill have been located once again, this time in the company of the notoriously unreliable Alistair. Spies report that Amy and Dan seem to be tracking the life of one of the most powerful fighters the world has ever known. If this fearsome warrior was a Cahill, his secrets are sure to be well-guarded.

When a second-rate cage fighter, Luke Wright, is tormented by the Russian Mafia and wanders the streets of New York, he witnesses a young Chinese girl, Mei, being pursued by the same mafia who want her for a priceless numerical code that they would kill for.

A shocking discovery about their parents shatters everything Amy and Dan think they know, causing them to be divided. When Dan vanishes in a country of a billion plus people, Amy must choose between finding the next clue or finding her little brother.

Do you like art? I do! So when Thea heard that there was a secret map hidden beneath Mouse Island's most famous painting, the Monamouse, I knew we had to get the scoop! Together we began to investigate, and soon we discovered secret clues that led us to the most fabumouse secret. And it all lay beneath the streets of New Mouse City!

While walking her poodle, Olivia Limoges discovers a dead body buried in the sand. Could the body be connected to the bizarre burglaries plaguing Oyster Bay, North Carolina? Can the Bayside Books Writers group decode the cliché clues left by the thieves?

A clue found in Japan has Amy and Dan jetting off to Egypt to find out just what's behind the fierce rivalry between the Tomas and Ekaterina branches of the Cahill family. Was a clue stolen from the Tomas branch? Where is it now? And most important, can Amy and Dan get their hands on it before their rivals do?

When Bertie the badger visits his grandfather at a retirement home for magicians, he learns that his grandfather's rabbit, Enigma, has disappeared along with everyone's magical things, and the reader is invited to help break a code to find the items hidden throughout the book. Includes a built-in decoder.

Unexpected media attention in their Harlem neighborhood bring Shelby Holmes, nine, and John Watson, eleven, a new case that sends them undercover as figure skaters.