ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY

Because I'm a CYBILS nonfiction picture book judge, right now, I'm reading, ummm, mostly nonfiction picture books. Every once in a while, I have to squeeze in a little fiction. This morning I finished MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY by Chris Grabenstein.

And I loved it!

The town of Alexandriaville, Ohio has not had a library for 12 years, then a very wealthy benefactor, Mr. Luigi Lemoncello, the owner of a famous game company,  donates millions of dollars to build a new state of the art, high tech facility in the old Goldleaf Bank Building. All of the twelve-year-olds in the town are invited to participate in an essay contest, which allows them to spend a night in the library at a Grand Opening celebration.

 Kyle Keeley, who is not a book lover, enters the contest because it is rumored that the library has video game consoles, and he is currently grounded from the consoles at home. He and his best friend, Akimi Hughes, are two of the contest's winners. When they get to the library, they discover that not only do they get to spend a night in the world's coolest library, they also have the opportunity to participate in another contest, which involves solving puzzles and piecing together clues to escape from the library. The winner will get to be a spokesperson on Lemoncello game commercials for a whole year!

ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY is a little bit of CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, a little FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER, a little Scrabble/Boggle/Trivial Pursuits, and a whole lot of literary references!

Can't wait to share this one with kids!