YES!!

The Fortress of the Treasure Queen (Droon #23) was lost in our house for many, many days. When Jake first reported its lost status, we helped him look. We looked in every room, on every shelf, in every cupboard. We ripped apart couches and looked under furniture. We checked every bookcase three times. We dumped out all the toy bins in the family room.  We checked dresser drawers and closets and bathrooms. No book. We waited a few days thinking that someone would find it in the course of everyday life. The book stayed lost. We searched again. Still no book. Days passed. Weeks passed. I renewed the book hoping it would show up before the last due date. It didn't. I asked the librarian for an extra extension and she granted one.

I knew the book was in the house somewhere (unless Lincoln had thrown it in the garbage....), but I had run out of places to search. Then yesterday afternoon Jake came running upstairs with the book. He said he found it on top of his dress up bin. This was odd because Kara said she'd searched there twice and had even looked inside his bin and Bentley's bin. Jake collected the $2 finder's fee from Kara. (I know, I know--you lose a book and you get paid to find it?!)

At dinner time I was quizzing him again about where exactly he found it, when Viva piped in "You didn't find it. I did." Huh? Viva said she found it at the bottom of her dress up bin (the only bin not searched) and she had put it on top of Jake's bin. I paid her $2, too, for finding the book. We still came out ahead on the fees. The library was going to charge us $25 for the missing book. 

Of course, the finder's fee was an incentive to search for the book, not really meant as a reward for a serendipitous find.  I don't care, though. I just wanted the book found. And it is!