Escape From Mr. Lemonchello's Library by Chris Grabenstein is one of the bigger hits in the middle school-level market right now, with Mr. Lemoncello's Great Library Race expanding the series into a trilogy and the first book being (very loosely) adapted into a Nickelodeon Original Movie that premiered last month. The reasons are clear: the writing features an excellent pace, the plots are imaginative, engaging and exciting and the stories have satisfying, thrilling conclusions. And while all three books feature excellent messages especially for younger readers; and while the message of Mr. Lemonchello's Great Library Race is not only loud and clear and a very important one to take to heart, the story becomes somewhat of a predictable let-down lacking the excitement and high stakes of the previous two installments. While still a good story, in comparison to the first two books, Mr. Lemonchello's Great Library Race comes off all too much like thumbing through the 900s section for a last-minute class research project.
The hallmark of Escape from Mr. Lemonchello's Library and Mr. Lemonchello's Library Olympics are the puzzles which do a great job of presenting the narrative as a board game in novel form. They're legitimately clever, challenging and satisfying for readers of all ages to solve, and of course the answers lie just a few paragraphs away (except for the ultra-secret puzzle which Mr. Grabenstein only alludes to as a note at the end of every novel, which he challenges all his readers to solve and submit answers to via email). In Mr. Lemonchello's Great Library Race the puzzles feel simpler if not outright phoned in, and seem much less frequent. The build-up and promise of a globe-trotting adventure for recurring protagonist Kyle and a potential new international team of junior librarians as setup by the previous entries, if not Great Library Race's very cover, is let down with a substitution of having previously established characters look up answers through the Dewey Decimal System, often with characters instantly recalling answers out of their heads. Sadly, the effect is too close to the actual experience, minus the whimsical banana-shaped jets and burnout-peeling bookmobiles. The major plot twist and the consequent stakes being raised fall flat too, mainly due to twists and developments even younger readers can seem coming, and the twists and developments seem inserted only to serve as reminders towards the importance of research and source verification - which sadly does not make for engaging reading.
Between the two competing messages of the book - the importance of research and fact-checking, and never giving up - it's hard to determine which messages are secondary to each other, but it's hard to deny that the "never give up message" is well-presented, especially through the appearance of important historical figures and famous celebrities who got to where they are or were in history by never giving up, despite countless failures. Among these stories includes an important sidenote of Chris Grabenstein's own story of how Mr. Lemonchello almost never came to be after multiple rejections. Unfortunately, there are no doubt better stories that effectively deliver that same message, and after two excellent adventures Mr. Lemonchello's Great Library Race comes off as more a casual library-bound stroll.
Grade: 3/5 stars, Goodreads.com scale (an average reading experience that is worthwhile for entertainment value or for completing a series, but readers may be feeling little of value to take away from the reading experience).
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