Lemoncello, what a fellow!

Happy Catholic New Year, everyone!  Hope your Advent is off to a great start.  ALSO, if you didn't know, Christmas is on a Monday this year, so that means that you will have to go to *gasp* two Masses in one weekend.

Your Sunday obligation will be fulfilled if you attend Mass on Saturday evening or Sunday Morning.  Your Christmas obligation will be fulfilled if you attend a Mass on Sunday evening (as long as it's the Mass of the Nativity) or Monday.  Just going to Mass once on Sunday will not fill both obligations.

We're doing the Saturday vigil and Christmas vigil boogie this year because we have a 3 month old to contend with.  Needless to say, the cuteness makes the contention pretty bearable.

 The midget has had the gall to outgrow all the hats I knitted for him.  

Guess I'll have to knit more.  hah.  

Today is also the feast day of THE REAL SANTA CLAUS, St. Nicholas.  In honor of his feast day, I present you with these fabulous memes that have been popping up all over facebook.  First, a good thrashing by St. Nicholas to the heretic, Arius, who denied the divinity of Christ.

Saintly Smackdown.

If you're a Catholic nerd, chances are, you'll like these:

Nicene Creed.  BOOM.

And, my personal favorite:

Bahahahahah!

Wanna know why the jolly commercialized fat man wears red?  Because the REAL St. Nicholas was a BISHOP.  And what do Bishops wear?  RED.


Anywho, we're back today, gentle reader, for the 3rd installment of Mr. Lemoncello's library.  It is hot off the press from Chris Grabenstein.  It came out on October 10th, and I am ECSTATIC!

Mr. Lemoncello's Great Library Race
Chris Grabenstein
272 Pages, Reading Time: about 6ish hours.

Inside Cover Reads:  Everyone's favorite game maker, Luigi Lemoncellois testing out his new FABULOUS FACT-FINDING FRENZY game!  If Kyle can make it through the first round, he and the other lucky finalists will race--by bicycle, book mobile, and even Mr. Lemoncello's corporate banana jet!- to find fascinating facts about famous Americans and win spectacular prizes!  But when a few surprising facts surface about Mr. Lemoncello, it might be GO TO JAIL and LOSE A TURN all at once!  Could Kyle's hero be a FRAUD?!  It's WINNER TAKE ALL, and Kyle and the other kids will have to dig deep to find out the truth before the game is over for Mr. Lemoncello and his entire fantastic enterprise!







Initial Reaction:  Grabenstein is at it again with his wonderful writing and stealthy teaching skills.  In this third installment of the adventures of the library of Alexandriaville, the readers learn more about research and non-fiction than they planned.  The plot is just as gripping as the first book.  I must say that the puzzles and clues aren't as prevalent this time, but that's ok because we're dealing with non-fiction.  Plus, there's a nod to Sheboygan, WI in there!

Promote Virtue?  Yes.  Perseverance, right judgment, thorough research (not making assumptions).

Transcendentals?  This book is inundated with the search for Truth, and the beauty of the truth.  There are a few points where the kids stray from the path.  The kids do act under false pretenses to get the antagonists to confess what they've done... which is a gray area, but there's one other part that concerns me because it's not clear.  I found it on page 213.  The kids are racing across the country to save Mr. Lemoncello's reputation, but instead of telling their parents what they're doing, they....

"Sent them a text saying Mr. Lemoncello was feeling blue so we're all watching The Sound of Music with him."  I'm really confused about this because in the previous paragraph, some of the other kids told their parents where they were actually going.  No good.  If I were doing a read aloud to my kids, I'd probably just skip that part.

Overcome human condition?  Yes, at the beginning of the story, Kyle is always trying to take shortcuts and jump to conclusions.  He makes a lot of mistakes and makes for one poor researcher.  Throughout the story and by virtue of his very thorough team mate, he learns that the shortest and quickest way is not always the best way to the finish line.

Attitude toward Catholicism?  NA

Paganry?  Nope

Swearing?  Nope, but a ton of great adjectives used as insults.

Violence?  nope.

Appropriate age?  4th grade plus independently.  Good for a 3rd grade read aloud.

Writing Style:  Awesome.  This story is written for a young audience, and it challenges them.  It challenges the reader in the way that they speak, act, and even do their homework.  I also love that he peppers in allusions to other works of literature, movies, music, and other things.  Grabenstein is a stealthy educator, and I love that.

Notable Quoteables:

"Finding the truth, no matter what truth you are seeking, is more important than finding the thief who stole my blueprints" (151).

"In 1969, Beth Bennet was in a show called Put On Your Shoes at the Melody Makers summer stock theatre in Sheboygan, Wisconsin" (183).

"I don't care," said Kyle.  "The truth is the truth, and people need to know it" (210).

Great words: pilfering, egregious, malevolent, smarmier

Final Summation:

If Grabenstein is going to continue this series, I can't wait for more.  Mr. Lemoncello's Great Library Race is an awesome way to get kids interested in the facts and being sure to do your research.  Therefore, I deem it

I also think that St. Nick would approve this awesome work, and wouldn't mind if you left a copy in your kid's shoe next year in honor of his feast day.