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| Thank you Random House for the book and the opportunity to interview Mr. Grabenstein |
Over the summer I read Escape
From Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris
Grabenstein. I loved it. It was difficult to put down. To be honest, I was a little jealous of Kyle
in the book. It would be fun to be part
of the gang that got to spend time in the new library.
Mr. Lemoncello is a wealthy man that builds a state of the
art library in his hometown. The
original library closed due to budget cuts, and the citizens had been without
one for years. Kids from the local
school wrote an essay on why they should be the first to spend time in the
library. Kyle (the main character, not
me!) wins and can’t wait to win the grand prize, so he can share it with his
family.
I was asked if I wanted to interview Chris Grabenstein, and
of course, I jumped at the chance. Below
is out intervlog.
I want to begin by welcoming you to The Boy Reader, and
taking time out to share your thoughts with the blog world. I loved Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library,
and I can’t wait to share it with kids.
My favorite is the name of the main character. Kyle is such a great name!
One of my favorite names of al time, too!
If you don’t mind, I thought I would group some questions
into some about the book, and some about your writing process.
·
One of the things I loved about the book are
your references to different authors and titles. Some I knew, some I didn’t (I didn’t know Sondheim
wrote a book.) How did you decide which
authors and books to include in the book?
I guess I more or less worked backwards. First, I determined what I needed the clue to
say or convey. Then, I went on a search
for a book that would work. I had lists
of books cluttering my desktop -- Newbery Award Winners, the Top Middle Grades
Books Of All Time, Classic Children's Books, etc. When I gave Mr. Lemoncello the verbal
"tick" of dropping classic titles into his everyday speech, I was on
the lookout for any chance to slip in another title...but without overdoing it
to the point that it became annoying.
When the paperback comes out, there will be a (quite long) list of all
the books mentioned in the book.
Some of the book titles I just made up. The names of those books' authors came from
charity auctions where we raised money for worthy causes by granting character naming rights in an upcoming book
to the highest bidder.
·
There are a lot of different types of games in
the book. The characters play video
games and traditional board games. Are
you a gamer? What games did you play
growing up?
Yes, I am a gamer. I grew up
with four brothers. The five of us
played board games all the time -- especially on rainy days in the summer. The line in the book from Kyle's mother,
"If you're bored, play a board game" is what my mom said to us. Growing up, we played a lot of Monopoly,
Risk, Stratego, Sorry, Clue -- I think my brothers and I kept those Parker
Brothers in business. My two older
brothers got into those very complex military strategy games. I moved on to Scrabble.
I based Kyle's character on that sliver of my own personality that
remembers how great it felt to beat my two big brothers at ANYTHING -- which
was only possible when we were playing games with rules.
When I did improvisational comedy, we did a series of "theatre
games" where we made up scenes, stories, and songs on the spot from
audience suggestions.
And now, as a writer, a game of NCAA Football '14 on my Play Station
III is my reward at the end of a day where I have met my 2,000 word quota.
·
The world’s most famous librarian is
wonderful. Who is Dr. Yannia Zinchenko
based on?
Dr. Zinchenko's name
comes from a librarian friend who helped me research some of the details in the
book (like the Dewey decimal numbers for any titles I created). Her character, however, is a total figment of
my imagination. I guess I wanted to make
her the complete opposite of the stereotypical librarian, the one you see
parodied in the Nancy Pearl Librarian Action Figure toy with push-button
Shushing Action.
So Dr. Zinchenko wears
flashy business suits, high heels, and blazing red hair. She proudly embraces technology as a tool for
knowledge.
The Librarian Action
Figure became the model for Mr. Lemoncello's holographic librarian from the
1960s.
·
As the kids figured out how to win they
automatically formed groups. It is cool
that this seemed to flow so easily and realistically. Did you plan that originally?
Yes. I think one of the
strengths of a library is as a place where collaboration and teamwork can
easily take place. One new YA Library
outside Chicago that I visited recently even had "collaboration
stations" where teams of kids could work on a project together. Libraries become that third space where we
can solve problems together. A big
theme of the book is the sharing of knowledge, which implies team work. As Mr. Lemoncello himself is famous for
saying "Knowledge Not Shared Remains Unknown."
·
Will there be more adventures with Kyle and Mr.
Lemoncello?
My next book with Random House, THE ISLAND OF DR. LIBRIS, about a boy
who discovers a mysterious island where all the characters he reads about come
to life, is more of a "companion piece" to MR. LEMONCELLO'S
LIBRARY. However, since everybody really
seems to like Kyle, Mr. Lemoncello, and the extraordinary library, I have
started thinking about doing a sequel -- maybe we'll call it LOST IN MR.
LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY.
·
The setting of is in a wonderful library. I am fortunate to live in Denver with a
fantastic main library designed my Michael Graves. The voters of Denver are very supportive of
libraries and have funded the building of new neighborhood libraries. Unfortunately, I know many communities are
not like Denver. Do you think libraries
are a dying institution?
No! I have seen some marvelous
libraries in my travels as an author.
They, like Mr. Lemoncello's Library, are more than a repository for books
and information. They are vibrant
community and cultural centers. A place
where kids can have fun learning. Where
those without high-speed internet access can surf the web. I think libraries are in transition. They are poised to become much more important
"community centers."
·
Teaching writing is one of the hardest subjects
to teach. I am constantly trying to
share information with my students about how writers write. Can you share your writing process?
My writing process is to write every day. I sit down in the morning, aiming to write
two thousand new words. I start the day
lightly editing the previous day's two thousand words and then, working with a
loose outline, push forward. A former
improvisational comedian, I tend to make my scenes up as I go. Like Robert Frost said, no surprise in the
writer, no surprise in the reader.
This is how I create my first draft.
Then, I go back and rewrite everything maybe a dozen different
times. It took us two years to get Mr.
Lemoncello to where we were all happy with it.
But, all those revisions and rewrites certainly seem to have paid off!
Thank you for your time.
I haven’t decided if I’m going to do this as a read aloud or do with a
small group or do as a Guys Read book club group. I do know that I can’t wait to share this
with students, and hear what their comments.
Again thank you for an enjoyable book and answering my
questions.
Kyle
