ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY

A biblio-brangle delighting young readers and their librarians for a decade has been seamlessly recast into graphic format.

The overall storyline remains the same: A group of seventh graders get an exclusive preview of a new town library built by gazillionaire game designer Luigi Lemoncello, during which they solve ingenious conundrums based on bookish clues while getting at least a sampling of library services and organization and (except for slimy, manipulative Charles Chiltington, that is) learning to share knowledge and work together. Along with cranking up the original escapade’s already lively pacing and incorporating its many actual book covers, rebuses, and other visual clues in his bright, crisply drawn panels, Holgate endows the setting’s spacious stacks, rooms, architectural details, and high-tech features with dazzling appeal. Better yet, his gangly, expressive figures not only glow with individual character but bring the cast’s racial and cultural diversity to the fore. Best of all, though some of the book talk had to go to make the dialogue fit, references to essential reading—from Maya Angelou to Pseudonymous Bosch, Treasure Island to Walter the Farting Dog—remain strewn throughout the games, solutions, dialogue, and backgrounds.

A sure pleaser for veteran fans of the series and likely to bring in a flush of new ones to boot.