My Children are Eating the Library Books

I don't recall ever losing a library book before. Not long-term, anyway. All of the sudden I am missing three. For a long time. As in, it's time to give in and pay for the books because they are lost forever. I have decided my children must be eating them when I am not looking. It is the only logical explanation. Really. Here are the possibilities:

Possibility #1: My children believe that they took the books back to the library. This was my original thought also. It has been weeks. I have scoured the shelves close to where they belong at the library. And no where near where they belong. If we really did take them back, then somehow the librarians did not get them checked in (possible) and then put them away in the wrong place (maybe) and then no one noticed for several weeks (mmmm) OR someone knew it was a book that was checked out under someone else's name, so they took it home without checking it out and now it will never been seen again.

Or the librarians are part of a conspiracy to make patrons pay for "lost" books that are not really lost. (doubtful--librarians are a notoriously honest bunch)

Possibility #2: They are somewhere in my home, and I have simply failed to find them. In the last several weeks. Despite ransacking every bedroom and closet, sorting every book in my personal library, sifting though every toy box and storage area, looking behind every piece of furniture, in every cupboard, through every bag, in all the vehicles and in the tank of each toilet... I have failed to find the hiding place of three innocuous library books. Highly unlikely.

 Possibility #3. Aliens visited my house, and were looking for something to read. They skipped over all the classics, award winners and gripping suspense novels for two books in the Alex Rider series and a short, fluffy, LDS pioneer romance story.

Possibility #4: My children are eating the library books. Of course! The evidence is so clear! The books have completely disappeared. My children never want to eat what is placed in front of them, and yet they spend ages sitting on the toilet. Very suspicious. Why have I not thought of this before? Mystery solved.