Because, my dear friends, these twelve children have lived their entire lives without a public library. As a result, they have no idea how extraordinarily useful, helpful, and funful—a word I recently invented—a library can be. This is their chance to discover that a library is more than a collection of dusty old books. It is a place to learn, explore, and grow!
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein is SO FUN. It’s sort of a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Westing Game hybrid. Mr. Lemoncello is this super eccentric rich dude who builds the world’s greatest library and then holds a contest for a selection of kids. And the contest is a scavenger hunt/the world’s best board game. I mean.
The book is one huge love letter to reading, authors, libraries, and librarians. Oh, and to smart kids and games, of course.
The kids are so great, but if I had to pick a favorite it would be Sierra. She is THE BEST. She plays the game, but she’s much more interested in exploring the books and reading. I love her.
There were a lot of allusions to tons of books (most of which were super easy to get, but it is a middle grade novel, so that makes sense). I started making a list, but then stopped because it got too long. So, the books/authors mentioned either outright or via allusion are:
- The Giver
- The Hunger Games
- Oh, the Places You Will Go
- Little House on the Prairie
- When You Reach Me
- One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
- Frederick Douglass
- The Westing Game
- Ella Enchanted
- The Great Gilly Hopkins
- The Red Pyramid
- Maniac Magee
- A Wrinkle in Time
- Great Expectations
- Goodnight Moon
- From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
- Bridge to Terabithia
- Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
- The Three Musketeers
- A Series of Unfortunate Events
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
- The Phantom Tollbooth
- The Wind in the Willows
- Tuck Everlasting
- The Rats of NIMH
- Al Capone Does My Shirts
And that is an incomplete list! Basically, a book or author is referenced on every single page. EVERY PAGE. ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
The book is not without its flaws (the characters are kind of flat, the ending a bit predictable), but I really enjoyed the emphasis on teamwork and, of course, how much awesomeness there is to find at the library. Love the library. LOVE the library, and therefore love this book.
The Englishist 