Before Hank was born, I did a lot of work with 826 Valencia, Dave Eggers’s tutoring center. In my time there, I became friends with some of the McSweeney’s folks, who always work hard to make magical things. Their latest project is so, so cool:

The Clock Without a Face, is a children’s board book about a clock with jeweled numbers. The numbers are stolen, and each page provides clues to where they’re buried.

The brilliant part? The numbers are real. Here’s what the site has to say:

“We’ve buried 12 emerald-studded numbers—each handmade and one of a kind—in 12 holes across the United States. These treasures will belong to whoever digs them up first. The question: Where to dig? The only path to the answer: Solve the riddles of The Clock Without a Face!”

McSweeney’s had the numbers made by a jeweler, and then made a real-life treasure hunt for their readers by burying them all over the U.S. Can you imagine how much work went into this?

Anyway, the hunt is already on, and the main character, Gus Twintig, has a Twitter account. I’ll keep you posted as people find the numbers (go look for the numbers, my nerdling friends!), but in the meantime you should get yourself a copy. McSweeny’s never prints too many books, and this one is a keeper.

Good work, McSweeney’s. You guys are dreamy.