A few years ago, we were introduced to Mr. Lemoncello in Chris Grabenstein’s book Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library. At the time, I had never heard of an escape room, though the book screams for someone to recreate the game from the story. When we chose this book for book club, we had a blast creating recipes for the foods from the book, as well as making the games in the story, decorating the house like a library, and pulling out every other detail we could think of.
Except the actual escape room itself. Because although my book clubbers did have puzzles and clues and figured out how to escape from our house, I didn’t know how to recreate all of those details for you.
Until now.
My Big Helper has been dreaming and scheming and planning with me, and we’ve done it: we’ve turned Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library into an escape room challenge.
The game features Charles Chiltington – who else? – as the bad guy who sets up the story. Following that, there are four games and one Extreme Challenge to solve before you can leave the library and save the day. Just like in Grabenstein’s book, the game features Clunker Cards, the game Bibliomania (which tests your knowledge of the Dewey Decimal system), the First Words game, a rebus puzzle, and more. There’s a simple paper-based ending, of course, because we teachers are busy, and sometimes simplicity rules the day. The book starts and ends with balloons, though, and so … there’s also an option that involves finding the correct balloon, because … there has to be balloons, right?
This escape room challenge is perfect for your upper-elementary or middle-grade classroom, as well as for homeschool groups and book clubs. Each puzzle tests your knowledge in literary and fun ways, all while thinking critically and cooperatively.
If you’d like to more, you can go here to read a full description and see previews of pages.
Of course, if you haven’t experienced the wonder of Mr. Lemoncello’s library yet, you’ll want to start there. It’s an amazingly creative story with a game designer who will remind you of Willy Wonka (but without the Oompa Loompas). You can read more about the book here, but I know you’ll want to bring it to life just like we did. If that’s you, you can find all the recipes, decorations, games and fun that I created to celebrate this fantastic book here.
So settle in for a good read, and then gather your friends and Escape the Library!
What creative things are you up to now?
