Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
by Chris Grabenstein
Random House, 2013. 289 pgs. Mystery

Kyle Keeley loves games, partly it is the one arena where he can best his two older brothers, one a star athlete and the other a "total brainiac." So when Luigi Lemoncello, one of the world's greatest developers of board games, donates a new library to his home town of Alexandriaville, where Kyle lives, excitement reigns. Especially when Mr. Lemoncello offers twelve twelve-year-olds an opportunity to Spend the Night in the Library, play games, and win prizes. Similar in spirit to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's golden ticket, prize-winning essays are the way in to the library overnighter. Kyle gets in, against all odds, and then the fun, the puzzles, the holographic librarians, the teaming up, and occasional treachery begin. This is a book that will quickly be clutched to the bosoms of children's librarians, library lovers, and children's book fans everywhere. But even kids who don't much care for books or libraries (for example, Kyle Keeley at the beginning of the story), will find much to like in this book where book titles, holograms, lifelines, cheating by the really snooty-snotty kid combine to a breakneck race to the finish as the kids have to figure a way to get OUT of Mr. Lemoncello's remarkable library.

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