Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library

By: Chris Grabenstein

Copyright: 2014

Published by: Yearling

Genre: Mystery and Adventure
Grades 5-6th Read Aloud

My rating:

Grade Level Equivalent: 4.4

Lexile Measure: 720L

The class clown, Kyle Keeley loves all games- board games, word games and especially video games.  Luigi Lemoncello, a famous game maker in the world and also Kyle’s hero, is the person behind the construction of the new town library.  Mr. Lemoncello hosts a sleepover for twelve kids in the library, and Kyle won one of those lucky spots.  However, when morning comes, the door is locked so Kyle and the other kids have to solve puzzles to find a hidden escape route!  Will Kyle and the other kids be able to find their way out?  Find out in this mysterious and adventurous novel. 

Suggested Delivery:

Small Group, Read Aloud

Words to Describe book:

Intense

Adventurous

Quirky

Teamwork

Whimsical

Useful Electronic Resources:

Teaching Guide

Great resource for teachers to use as a reference when teaching this book. This is a great educators guide that lays out some pre-reading activities, group discussion questions and other activities.  All of the questions and activities connect with the Common Core Standards for all grade levels, from first to sixth.  There are also various activities that connect to each domain of the common core- reading, speaking and listening and writing. 

Expanded Activities

Another great teaching resource.  This resource provides a variety of challenging and thought-provoking discussion questions and various activities that align with the common core standards.  The activities are very interactive and engaging that the students can complete to go beyond the text itself. 

Activity Variety (Pages 14-15)

Great teaching ideas for teachers to use when designing their lesson plans.  There are many different activities to participate in that relate to other content areas and get the students to explore beyond the text. 

Teaching Opportunities:

Key Vocabulary:

Rotunda (65)- A large, round room and especially one covered by a dome

Reverberated 122)- To continue in a series of quickly repeated sounds that bounce off a surface

Rebus (160)- A riddle or puzzle made up of letters, pictures, or symbols whose names sound like the parts of syllables of a word or phrase

Juggernaut (198)- Something that is extremely large and powerful and cannot be stopped

Elusive- Hard to find of capture; hard to understand, define or remember

Entourage (269)- A group of people who go with an assist an important person

Reading Strategy Suggestions to increase literal and/ or inferential comprehension:

Pre-Reading Strategy

Reading interest survey- A survey that asks students their interests about reading.  If this book was being used in small group discussion groups, the interest survey would be beneficial so that the students would be put with other students of similar likes. 

Example Interest Survey

During-Reading Strategy

Stixty- Web 2.0 Application that allows you to create your own online bulletin boards by sticking notes, photos or other ideas for others to see.

Students can create a Stikty board that they can update and as to as they read the book.  They can write important things that happened in the book, document important characters and events, and also add pictures of certain objects that remind the students of various characters or events. 

Post-Reading Strategy

SPAWN Writing- Special powers, problem solving, alternative viewpoints, what if?, Next

Students can decide what component of SPAWN they would like to write about with regards to this novel.  The students have 5 choices: special power, problem solving, alternative viewpoints, what if and next.  Special powers gives the students the ability to change one aspect of the text explaining why they made the change and what effect it would have on the rest of the story.  Problem solving allows the student to respond to problems discussed in the book.  Alternate viewpoints asks students to write about a topic from a new, unique perspective.  What if has the teacher introduce the students a change to the text and the students must respond to teacher’s change.  Finally, next has students anticipate what will happen next and must explain why they believe this to be true. 

Writing Activity

Students will answer a question regarding a main character in the text:

Kyle’s team made him the leader?  What made Kyle a great leader?  Cite at least 3 examples from the text that support your claim.