Mr. Lemoncello's great library race

Review by Booklist Review

Legendary game maker and library supporter Mr. Lemoncello is back with a new game designed to make research fun: Fact-Finding Frenzy. If Kyle and his friends are first to unravel the clues and puzzles about famous historical figures, they'll win fabulous prizes and the opportunity to travel around North America with Mr. Lemoncello's new holographic exhibit. But while researching their way to a win, Kyle and his teammate discover some facts that could put Mr. Lemoncello's reputation, his entire game empire, and the library at risk. As Kyle and his teammate search for information, they learn that not everything they read or hear can be trusted. Grabenstein weaves in themes of finding sources, discerning fact from fiction, and judging the credibility of the Internet in an engaging manner sure to entice readers to partake in their own research quest. With just enough mystery and twists to keep readers guessing, this third series offering is a valuable and useful tool for classrooms and libraries in teaching the importance of doing responsible research. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Not only will this book see heavy promotion, the publisher is launching a Race Back to Book One series campaign that will make keeping Mr. Lemoncello in the library a challenge.--Thompson, Sarah Bean Copyright 2017 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

---

Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 3-6-Eccentric billionaire game maker Luigi Lemoncello is back with all-new games and contraptions. In his ultramodern, high-tech library, Lemoncello unveils his newest creation, the Nonfictionator, which is capable of generating historical holograms, including Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt, who then converse with library patrons. Kyle Keeley, Akimi, and the other young contestants are back in this third installment facing their greatest challenge yet-the Great Library Race. Teams of contestants must travel by bookmobile and Mr. Lemoncello's private jet as they discover clues about historical figures such as Thomas Edison and the Wright brothers. When Kyle's team unearths evidence that suggests that the title character is a fraud who stole the ideas for his blockbuster games, it is up to the young sleuths to learn the truth before Lemoncello's empire and library are ruined. Lemoncello's nemesis game rivals, the Krinkle brothers, along with a slew of other nefarious characters, try to mastermind an evil takeover. Fans will embrace this new entry, which, like the previous books, features lightning-fast pacing and zany plotlines. Educators will be pleased by the emphasis on careful research and fact-checking. VERDICT Chock-full of literary references, this title will have readers racing to pick up the next volume in this popular series.-Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

---

Review by Horn Book Review

In the third Lemoncello title, Kyle and other trustees of the Lemoncello Library attempt another challenge: "The Fabulous Fact-Finding Frenzy." Traveling by bookmobile, plane, and bicycle, the teams race around digging up facts on famous Americans. When negative information on Mr. Lemoncello surfaces, the kid-researchers dig deeper into the truth. Built-in book recommendations and an emphasis on real facts make this a standout literary adventure. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

---

Review by Kirkus Book Review

Participants in one of Luigi Lemoncello's board-games-without-a-board discover the value of careful research and teamwork. Middle schooler Kyle Keeley and his mostly white friends and fellow trustees of the splendiferous Lemoncello Library are delighted when its founder, the irrepressible inventor, offers them another challenge: a Fabulous Fact-Finding Frenzy that will take them far from home. Kyle, a boy from Mr. Lemoncello's hometown of Alexandriaville, Ohio, who often jumps to conclusions, is paired with hijabi Abia Sulayman from Boston. Her serious, careful approach (disappointingly, expressed in stiffly formal, mostly contraction-free syntax) turns out to be a good counterbalanceand both are eager to win until their research turns up information that could destroy the Lemoncello reputation, threatening his game-building empire and their beloved library. Luckily, all four of the finalists in this research game team up to dig deeper to find the true facts. This third volume of a popular series will be equally welcomed. As before, Grabenstein blends suspenseful adventure, humor, and wishful thinking, seasoning it with riddles, rebuses, wonderful wordplay, and plentiful allusions to children's literature. He makes some political statements, too. At one point, Lemoncello's lawyer reminds the researchers that "public opinion can often be swayed by emotion with little regard for facts." At another, Muslimah Abia reminds her friends to judge people as individuals rather than members of a group. Good entertainment with some meaningful messages. (Fiction. 9-14) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

---

This was a game Kyle Keeley refused to lose.  For the first time since Mr. Lemoncello's famous library escape contest, he was up against his old nemesis, Charles Chiltington.  "Surrender, Keeley!" Charles jeered from three spaces ahead. "Chiltingtons never lose!"  "Except, you know, when they do!" shouted Kyle's best friend, Akimi Hughes. She was ten spaces behind Kyle and couldn't stand seeing Charles in the lead.  The life-size board game had been rolled out like a plastic runner rug around the outer ring of tables in the Rotunda Reading Room of Mr. Lemoncello's library.  "The game's not over until it's over, Charles," Kyle said with a smile.  He had landed on a bright red question mark square, while Charles was safe on "Free Standing." A shaky collection of drifting holograms hovered over their heads, suspended in midair beneath the building's magnificent Wonder Dome. The dome's giant video screens were dark so they wouldn't interfere with the ghostly green images creating what Mr. Lemoncello called a Rube Goldberg contraption--a device deliberately designed to perform a very simple task in an extremely complicated way. Most Rube Goldberg contraptions involve a chain reaction. In Mr. Lemoncello's Rickety-Trickety Fact or Fictiony game, a new piece of the chain was added every time one of the players gave an incorrect answer. If someone reached the finish line before all the pieces lined up, they won. However, if any player gave one too many wrong answers, they would trigger the chain reaction and end up trapped under a pointed dunce cap. They would lose. "Are you ready for your question, Mr. Keeley?" boomed Mr. Lemoncello, acting as the quiz master. "Yes, sir," said Kyle. "Fact or fiction for six," said Mr. Lemoncello, reading from a bright yellow game card. "At five feet four inches, George Washington was the shortest American president ever elected. Would you like to answer or do the research?" It was a tough choice, especially since Kyle didn't know the answer. If he did the research, he'd have to go back one space and lose a turn so he could look up the correct answer on one of the tablet computers built into the nearby reading desk. But while he was researching, Charles might surge ahead. He might even make it all the way to the finish line. On the other hand, even though Kyle didn't know the answer, if he said either "fact" or "fiction," he had a fifty-fifty chance of being right and moving forward six spaces, putting him in front of Charles, and that much closer to victory. Of course, Kyle also had a fifty-fifty chance of being wrong and adding what might be the final hologram to the wobbly contraption overhead. "Do the research, Kyle!" urged Akimi. "Please do," sneered Charles. "Yo!" shouted another one of Kyle's best buds, Miguel Fernandez. "Don't let Chiltington get under your dome, bro. He's just playing mind games with you." "Impossible." Charles sniffed. "Keeley doesn't have a mind for me to play with." "Uh, uh, uh," said Mr. Lemoncello. "Charles, I wonder if, just this once, you might choose kind?" He turned to Kyle. "Well, Mr. Keeley? No one can make this decision for you, unless, of course, you hire a professional decider, but trust me--they are decidedly expensive. Are you willing to put everything on a waffle and take a wild guess?" Kyle hated losing a turn when the whole idea was to win the game. He hated going backward when the object was to move forward.  He studied the teetering collection of holograms suspended under the darkened dome. He looked at Charles, who was sneering back at him smugly. "I want to answer, sir." "Very well," said Mr. Lemoncello. "Let me repeat the question before the cucumbers I had for lunch repeat on me: At five feet four inches, George Washington was the shortest American president ever elected. Fact or fiction?" Kyle took a deep breath. He remembered some teacher once saying people were shorter back in the olden days. So odds were that Washington was a shrimp. "That, sir," he said, "is a . . . fact?" A buzzer SCRONK ed like a sick goose. "Sorry," said Mr. Lemoncello. "It is, in fact, fiction. At six feet three inches, George Washington was one of our tallest presidents. It's time to add another piece to our dangling-dunce-cap-trap contraption." Electronic notes diddled up a scale. "Oh, dear," said Mr. Lemoncello. "It looks like that's the last straw!" A hologram of a striped milk carton straw floated into place. It shot a spitball at a hologram of an old-fashioned cash register, which hit a button, which made the cash drawer pop open with a BING! The drawer smacked a holographic golf ball, which BOINK ed down seven steps of a staircase one at a time until it bopped into a row of dominoes, which started to tumble in a curving line. The final domino triggered a catapult, which fired a Ping-Pong ball, which smacked a rooster in the butt. The bird cock-a-doodle-doo ed, which startled a tiny man in a striped bathing suit standing on top of a fifty-foot ladder so much that he leapt off, spiraled down, and landed with a splash in a wooden bucket, which, since it was suddenly heavier, pulled a rope that struck a match, which lit a fuse, which ignited a fireworks rocket, which blasted off, which knocked the dunce cap off its hook. The holographic hat of shame fell and covered Kyle like an upside-down ice cream cone. "Loser!" crowed Charles. Everybody else laughed. By taking a wild guess, Kyle hadn't gone backward or lost a turn. But he'd definitely lost the game!        Excerpted from Mr. Lemoncello's Great Library Race by Chris Grabenstein All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

---