MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY OLYMPICS: Goodreads Choice Awards 2016

MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY OLYMPICS
CHRIS GRABENSTEIN (Mr. Lemoncello's Library #2)
Random House Books for Young Readers
$16.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4.5* of five, for the storyline mostly

The Publisher Says: Welcome, boys and girls, readers of all ages, to the first-ever Library Olympiad! Kyle and his teammates are back, and the world-famous game maker, Luigi Lemoncello, is at it again!

This time Mr. Lemoncello has invited teams from all across America to compete in the first ever LIBRARY OLYMPICS. Will it be fun? Like the commercials say. . . HELLO? It’s a Lemoncello! But something suspicious is going on . . . books are missing from Mr. Lemoncello’s library. Is someone trying to CENSOR what the kids are reading?! In between figuring out mind-boggling challenges, the kids will have to band together to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Now it’s not just a game—can Mr. Lemoncello find the real defenders of books and champions of libraries?

My Review: I voted for this book in the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards. I like Chris Grabenstein, a Twitter acquaintance. I like Mr. Lemoncello a lot. And the anti-censorship message of this book makes it a shoo-in for my eternal love.

The fact that this is aimed at a middle-grade audience prevents me from discussing the writing. I'm the grandfather of a high-schooler, I got nothin' ta sez bout that becuz don't know anymore. But from my lofty vantage of being closer to 70 than I am to 40, I can say that I enjoyed this fun and breezy read. Its message is one I want all kids to absorb. If I had the spondulix, I'd send three copies to every school library in the US.