Library Escape

Though not a fan of video games (and not good at them either), I hesitated to read Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein because video games are the passion of one main character. Then again, it is about a state-of-the-art library. I began yesterday afternoon and have read in all my spare minutes today...appropriate because the book's characters have about that much time to escape from that incredible library.

I won't write much about the story and the exceptional special effects. Just be prepared for astonishment. The technological displays and the extraordinary puzzles kept me guessing and deducing along with the characters, sometimes taking notes to solve puzzle clues they might have missed. Imagining a library like this one was not as preposterous as I expected! Oh, and I could almost smell lemon along with the characters. Readers (or listeners) will love this book!

Book titles abound in the text, and careful, well-read individuals will chuckle at lines like these:

"Sorry, Yasmeen. That's where your sidewalk ends." - p. 90

"Did Joey Pigza lose control? Was Ella enchanted." - p. 125

"The other team's penalty gives you a wrinkle in time." - p. 196

"Keep working the puzzle but try to avoid Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler's files. They're all mixed up." - p. 196

"And there's no place I'd rather be on my birthday than inside a library, surrounded by books. Unless, of course, I could be on a bridge to Terabithia." -p. 229

"Just a brief flight of fancy, my mind sailing off past the phantom tollbooth." -p. 248