Re-Read the Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Series
The BESTSELLING book is now a full-color, fun-packed GRAPHIC NOVEL!
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Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library
By Chris Grabenstein; illustrated by Douglas Holgate
The Lemoncello books have spent over 100 Weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List and are on 44 State Award Lists!
Find out if game-loving Kyle Keeley can escape from what James Patterson calls “the coolest library in all the world” in this fun-filled graphic novel from the much-loved co-author of Treasure Hunters and the bestselling illustrator of Last Kids on Earth!
When Kyle learns that the world’s most famous game maker, Luigi Lemoncello, has designed the town’s new library and is having an invitation-only lock-in on opening night, he’s determined to be there! But the tricky part isn’t getting into the library–it’s getting out. Because when morning comes, the doors stay locked. Kyle and the other kids must solve every clue and figure out every secret puzzle to find the hidden escape route!
Hear from Chris Grabenstein
When I talk to kids about my new book, The Island of Dr. Libris, I torture them with a tale of “electronics deprivation.” My main character, Billy Gillfoyle, is spending the summer in a cabin on a lake. There is no cable, TV, DVR, X-Box, or PlayStation 3. There isn’t even an old-fashioned VCR by this point; the kids’ gasps become audible. On his first day at the cabin, Billy drops his iPhone, which shatters. The nearest Apple store is several hundred miles away.” Jaws drop. The kids are practically weeping – just like my hero, Billy Gillfoyle. He mopes around the cabin after the demise of his iPhone and ends up in this scene with his mother: “Billy, what do you think kids did before video games, TV, or even electricity?” “I don’t know. Cried a lot?” He plopped down dramatically on the couch. “No, Billy. They read books. They made up stories and games. They took nothing and turned it into something.”
And that’s what happens to Billy in this book: He learns to use and trust his imagination. Characters from books he reads in Dr. Libris’ study start coming to life on the island in the middle of the lake. In no time, Hercules, the monster Antaeus, Robin Hood, Maid Marian, The Three Musketeers, D’Artagnan, Pollyanna, and Tom Sawyer are all bumping into each other’s stories. It’s up to Billy, with the help of his new friend Walter, and a bookcase filled with classic literature, to “imagine” a scenario that will bring all the conflicts to a tidy resolution. Yep. In The Island of Dr. Librais, Billy Gillfoyle is learning how to become a writer. He puts his characters into situations and conflicts that will, ultimately, take him to the happy ending he, and everybody else, is looking for.
When all seems lost, he is on the island with his new friends Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and Hercules, despairing that he’s not heroic enough to rescue his asthmatic friend Walter from the clutches of the evil Space Lizard (yes, hideous creatures from video games and fairy tales eventually come to life on the island, too.)
In my book Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, I wanted to make young readers excited about reading and doing research. I tried to turn a trip to the library into an incredibly fun scavenger hunt filled with puzzles and surprises. (In my perpetually twelve-year-old mind, that’s what doing research actually is.)
With The Island of Dr. Libris, I aim to excite young readers about the power and awesomeness of their imaginations. I want them to take nothing and turn it into something. To take two old ideas, toss them together, and create something new. And, when they write their own stories, some may decide to become authors, writing stories for the rest of us, too!
