by Chris Grabenstein
2023 / 250 pages
In this tween graphic novel (based on the tween novel of the same name), Mr. Lemoncello is a self-made billionaire whose company sells the world’s best board games. He’s used his money to build the world’s most intriguing library, and now he’s invited 12 of the town’s twelve-year-olds to spend a night there before its grand opening.
Mr. Lemoncello’s creativity and general quirkiness have some comparing him to Willy Wonka, from Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I get the comparison – both are entrepreneurs, both make something that kids love, and both have kids touring their facility.
But Dahl’s book had a bit of a dark comic edge, with 4 bad kids on the tour alongside the one good one. And the bad kids get administered swift justice when they misbehave (after one girl, Violet Beauregarde, steals a piece of experimental gum, it turns her blue and round, and she is rolled away, forced to leave the tour).
Lemoncello’s Library has fewer bad kids and he treats them with a lot more patience. There are also more good kids, and the hero of our story, a boy named Kyle, ends up taking a leadership role in getting the other kids to cooperate together to figure out Mr. Lemoncello’s puzzles.
That’s what this is, a “puzzle book,” and more akin to Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society, than Roald Dahl’s work. There’s a team of brilliant kids working together to solve problems and puzzles. But the puzzles aren’t vernally the sort that reader will be able to solve themselves – most of the time we are just along for the ride, but there are a few that we get to puzzle through too.
The big puzzle here is, as the title says, to escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s library. They have a day to figure out a way out of the library, using all the resources of the library to find clues and win challenges. It’s like a mystery, but with no actual villain to fight, or crime to solve.
Cautions
The book opens with Kyle breaking a window to win a game. Not the best example. But he does have to make it right.
I’ll also note that with the story taking place in a library, a lot of different book titles are mentioned, and not all of them will be books you’d want your son or daughter to check out. But they are mentioned just in passing. That’s more of a problem in the original novels, where several of the books end with a list of the books cited, which might encourage a kid to look them up. Maybe that’s related to the more significant warning for this book: it makes a library seem like a friendly, safe place. And it just isn’t. It probably wasn’t when I was a kid, but with Pride Month invading even the children’s section, it certainly isn’t now. So kids will need to be taught that you can’t just wander the aisles grabbing whatever book you want, as some of them are trash, and some are even dangerous. I’ll add also that while this is fun graphic novel, it might create an appetite for the original novels, and because they promote all sorts of unworthy books in a much more pointed way, that might be a reason to skip this book for a school library, even as parents will know if they can hand this off to their own children and stop them at just this one.
Conclusion
The book’s bright colors will catch your tween’s attention, and the quickly moving story will keep them engaged. I though it just a tad jumpy, as often happens when a book is adapted to comic-book format, but it wasn’t too bad this time.
I’ve been reading the original book this is based on, and usually the original is better than the comic book adaption. I think, in this case, the comic might just be different, and just as good in its own way. The pictures let us see things a little more clearly than the book’s descriptions, but I do wonder if, in the book, kids might have more of a chance of solving some of the puzzles before Kyle does. That won’t happen in the comic (or, at least, I didn’t manage it). But that’s fine, as this is just meant to be a light, quick read. It’s on the fluffy side, but safe, and fun – I think most any 10 to 12 year olds will want to read it.
