Celebrate National Library Week With Author Chris Grabenstien

In honor of National Library Week and School Library Month, I am pleased to welcome Mr. Chris Grabenstein to Mrs. Merrill's Book Break! 

Escape From aMr. Lemoncello's Library is a title on the NYSRA CharlotteBook Award imiddle school ballot. 

For more fun, make sure you visit Chris' website!

Readers should read my book because . . . You’ll have so much fun, laughing and solving puzzles, you won’t even realize that you’re learning something. 

I came to write MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY  . . . After visiting P.S. 10 in Brooklyn and learning that their brand new, state of the art library had been donated by a very generous benefactor. That got me thinking, what if a very generous and eccentric bazillionaire donated an amazing library to the town where he grew up?

           

My favorite place to read . . . On a train!  There’s just something about it.  Second favorite is the cushy chair in my office.

Here are a couple photos of my office with books under construction.  The high shelf in the second photo is where I keep one copy of every book of mine that’s been published.  (36 so far).   I also keep stacks of my most recent books that I give away to folks.

A book that has touched my heart . . . My most recent book with James Patterson, JACKY HA HA touched my heart because while writing about a middle child who finds herself in her “theater family” within the middle school drama club, I revisited my own memories of being a middle child who found himself in his theater family.

I collect my ideas and inspiration for writing . . . In a Peppermint Bark tin in my office.  For years, I wrote down all my ideas and inspirations on 3 by 5 index cards.  If it was an idea for a new book, it went into the box.  If it was an inspiration for what I was working on, it went on one of the bulletin boards lining the walls of my office.  These days, I find that I am recording more ideas and notions on my iPhone notes app…which I can talk into while I’m out walking the dog. Ah, technology!

Readers should know . . .The second book in the series, MR. LEMONCELLO’S LIBRARY OLYMPICS was inspired by a fifth grader who was a big fan of the first book ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY.  During the Q and A of a school visit, he commented, "I bet Charles Chiltington (the villain of the first book) has the worst Christmas vacation of his life, watching the Lemoncello TV commercials he could've starred in if he'd won the Escape game."  

That made me think that kids all across the country, seeing those same commercials, might wonder why they hadn't been given a chance to compete in the Escape game.  Mr. Lemoncello would receive thousands of letters and millions of emails and decide to host a new series of games, open to the best and brightest bibliophiles from all over the country – his first ever Library Olympics!  Twelve bookish games to find the true champions of the library!

Here is a fun trailer we did for MR. LEMONCELLO’S LIBRARY OLYMPICS.

A project that I’m currently working on . . .

Oh, there are several:

WELCOME TO WONDERLAND: HOME SWEET MOTEL, coming in October 2016

MR. LEMONCELLO’S GREAT LIBRARY RACE, coming in 2017

WELCOME TO WONDERLAND: BEACH PARTY SURF MONKEY, coming in 2017

Co-authored with James Patterson

Treasure Hunters: Peril At The Top of the World with James Patterson 2016

House of Robots #3 - 2016

I Funny: School of Laughs - 2017

And two other projects not yet announced.

Celebrate libraries, celebrate books, and celebrate reading by visiting your school or public library to check out one or ALL of Chris Grabenstein's books!