The Mr. Lemoncello series is a Middle Grade series by Chris Grabenstein. It follows Kyle Keeley and his friends as they compete in competitions arranged by the titular Mr. Lemoncello, an eccentric game maker who uses his immense wealth to interest kids in reading.The books in the series so far are:
- Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library
- Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics
- Mr. Lemoncello's Great Library Race
- Mr. Lemoncello's All-Star Breakout Game
- Mr. Lemoncello and the Titanium Ticket
This series contains examples of:
- Alliterative Name:
- Kyle Keeley
- Charles Chiltington
- Blatant Lies: Andrew tries to claim the door to Team Kyle's meeting room was unlocked, even though the team saw him swipe a card to get in.
- Catchphrase: Mr. Lemoncello and his games have the catchphrase "Is it fun? Hello! It's a Lemoncello!"
- Cut the Juice: Akimi flips the emergency shutoff switch when Haley is stuck on a conveyor belt.
- Hologram: These are everywhere in the library. The front desk is manned by a recreation of Lemoncello’s childhood librarian, the atrium is ringed by holographic busts of famous authors, and the rest of the library contains projectors that show anything from a white tiger to Johannes Gutenberg.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Dr. Zinchenko reviews security footage and finds proof that Andrew was responsible for the theft of Sierra’s card. He is immediately expelled from the competition.
- Shout-Out: So, so many.
- In the first book:
- The contest is compared to The Hunger Games "but with lots of food and no bows or arrows".
- Lemoncello wakes the contestants up by playing the theme song from Rocky.
- When explaining Egyptian mythology, Akimi mentions The Red Pyramid.
- A sample trivia question from Bibliomania asks about the horse Frodo rode in The Lord of the Rings.
- The solution to the competition in book 1? Walking through the tunnel bank robbers used when the library was a bank like the League of Red-Headed Gentlemen. It's hinted at by the Sherlock Holmes books given to the contestants..
- In the first book:
- Smug Snake: Charles treats everyone he isn't sucking up to with disdain. He even sends Andrew, his ally, to steal Sierra's library card knowing full well he will be kicked out of the game.
- The Wonka: Mr. Lemoncello speaks mostly in Shout-Outs, dances around wearing burping banana shoes, and builds extremely high-tech libraries, but his company is very successful thanks to their creative games. He's compared to the Trope Namer in the first book.
