Escape From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library

For readers 8 – 12. The author is Chris Grabenstein.

Mr. Lemoncello is a billionaire, who made his fortune from the creation of whacky and creative games, and he couldn’t have done any of it without his local library. When the library is turned into a parking garage, he funds a new library, which takes 12 years to build.

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library, by Chris Grabenstein, is the story of an eccentric billionaire named Luigi Lemoncello and his plan to share his love of libraries with the children of Alexandriaville. Mr. Lemoncello gives a great deal of money to have the former Gold Leaf Bank renovated as the town’s new library.

When Kyle learns that the world’s most famous game maker has designed the town’s new library and is having an invitation-only lock-in on the first night, he is determined to be there. But the tricky part isn’t getting into the library – it’s getting out. Kyle’s going to need all his smarts, because a good roll of the dice or lucky draw of the cards is not enough to win in Mr. Lemoncello’s library.

Twelve-year-old Kyle Keeley is obsessed with the board games of Mr. Luigi L. Lemoncello, the world’s most renowned game maker. Big news hits his town when Mr. Lemoncello transforms Alexandriaville, Ohio’s old bank into a state-of-the-art, into a technologically advanced library, and he’s holding an essay contest where twelve students from the middle school can spend one night in a lock-in before the library’s opening. Although Kyle misses the essay deadline, he rewrites his essay to email it to Mr. Lemoncello despite a reply that the sending had been unsuccessful. But Kyle’s knowledge of games and his friends’ knowledge of books and libraries are put to the test when they have to play the biggest game yet; having to escape from the library using only their wits and the clues scattered around the library’s different sections.