Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

Charles instructs Andrew to get Sierra’s library card so that he can access Kyle’s meeting room. It is almost two in the morning, and Sierra is awake reading Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Andrew approaches and makes small talk, then asks to see the book; sure enough, as Charles told him, Sierra’s library card is stuck in the pages as a bookmark. Andrew switches it with his. Sierra does not notice. The video screens turn to the green bedroom from Goodnight Moon, and the grown bunny appears in holographic form to say goodnight.

When Kyle wakes the next morning, Sierra is awake and reading a different book. Someone placed five copies of a children’s picture book called The Eleventh Hour on the center desk overnight. Sierra speculates that 11am is when the last call number clue for the 300s book will appear on the Wonder Dome. In the Café for breakfast, Haley is unhappy with her team. Miguel invites her to join Team Kyle. Haley asks if that would be allowed and asks if Andrew joined their team, as he had used a library card moments before to enter Team Kyle’s meeting room.

Team Kyle members catch Andrew writing down all the information Akimi had posted. A live video of Mr. Lemoncello dressed as an English judge appears. He requests that everyone join him in the Rotunda Reading Room, and the children are surprised to find Mr. Lemoncello actually there in person at the center librarian desk. Charles arrives, pretending not to know about Andrew’s break-in, although Andrew is quick to say Charles put him up to it. Mr. Lemoncello asks for Andrew’s card, and everyone quickly sees that he committed “the old switcheroo” (230). Andrew accuses Charles of bullying him into the theft, and Charles asks for proof. Andrew has none. Mr. Lemoncello collects his card for Team Kyle. Haley requests to change sides.

Mr. Lemoncello allows Haley to change teams and share the card and clue info with Kyle and the others. To compensate, Mr. Lemoncello gives Charles “a few extra clues” (232) in a white envelope. Mr. Lemoncello reveals that he does not actually know where the escape exit is, as Dr. Zinchenko planned the entire game for him as a birthday present; today is his birthday. For a bonus question, Charles asks why Mr. Lemoncello keeps a copy of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler on his bedside table, and Mr. Lemoncello tells him that Mrs. Tobin gave it to him when he was 12. Mr. Lemoncello gives a bonus answer to Team Kyle without a question: “lodgepole, loblolly, and Rocky Mountain white” (233). Charles hears this answer and showboats his knowledge that all three are types of pine trees. Mr. Lemoncello flips a giant-sized game timer and tells them they have only three more hours to get out.

Charles heads to his meeting room alone, convinced that Mr. Lemoncello’s most recent clues were “sappy” (the book) and “preposterous” (the pine trees). In the envelope, he finds the rebus for crawled and a new clue which he cannot decipher. It is three identical pictures of a man and woman eating dinner. Charles plugs in the new clues and gets “You can walk out the way” (237) but is uncertain of the rest. He decides to Ask an Expert, confident the person he phones will help him find the last Staff Picks book: True Crime Ohio: The Buckeye State’s Most Notorious Brigands, Burglars, and Bandits.

In their conference room, Team Kyle listens to Haley’s clues while Akimi adds Haley’s info to their clue lists. Haley tells Kyle she is fairly certain the Staff Picks clues are leading toward “You walk out the way bandits crawled in” (240). None of them can figure out how to decipher books from their library cards; they now have 22 of 24 (2 books for each of 11 players; all but Charles’s card). Suddenly, Mr. Lemoncello peeks in to offer an Extreme Challenge.

Kyle volunteers to complete the Challenge, even though it might mean ejection from the game. Haley volunteers to help him, wanting to earn her place on the team. Mr. Lemoncello tells Haley and the others they can cheer Kyle on over the intercom as they watch him on video. Kyle has only 15 minutes. Mr. Lemoncello recites a riddle as Dr. Zinchenko reveals it to him over his earpiece. It describes an object Kyle must find: “[…] a memory box…/ that holds the mother lode” (246). When Mr. Lemoncello adds a clue about the box changing locations, Haley recognizes the box as the one she hid earlier.

As Kyle’s time begins, Mr. Lemoncello asks Charles if he intends to use a lifeline. Charles tells him he would like to use his Ask an Expert. The holographic form of Mrs. Tobin is shocked when she hears that Charles’s expert, his Uncle Jimmy, is actually James F. Willoughby the Third, Head Librarian at the Library of Congress.

Haley directs Kyle to the location in the Stacks where she hid the box. As he runs toward the book-sorting machine, one of the bookcases, heavy and dangerous, comes rolling at him. He runs around it, but immediately another bookcase comes in to block his path. The Stacks become a moving, shifting obstacle course as he tries to reach the goal. His team members cheer him on, and Haley shouts helpful directions: ‘You’ve only got like ten more yards to go!” (253). With their advice and encouragement, Kyle reaches the box just as the “calm female voice” speaking through the ceiling speakers announces he has one minute left: “He tucked the boot box under his arm and ran like he had never run before” (255). With seconds to spare, he slides and drops the box on the slippery marble floor of the Reading Room; it skitters into his team’s meeting room just as the buzzer goes off signifying the end of the game.