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chapter-7

“Right now,” said Mr. Lemoncello, “the tremendous holographic magic of the Nonfictionator only works inside the library or here in this extremely expensive portable unit. But…” Mr. Lemoncello let everybody hang in suspense for a few seconds.

Finally, when Kyle thought he might burst, Mr. Lemoncello tapped the remote button on top of the Nonfictionator box.

A giant flat-screen TV brightened inside the wall behind him.

“This November,” he announced, “just in time for the holiday shopping season, we will introduce what could be a real game changer of a game. Fantabulous Floating Emoji! It’s like charades, except the clues are given by three-D emoticons projected over the board by the ‘magic holographic eye’!” A computer-generated animation of the game appeared on the TV screen. There was a trail of spaces winding around the edges of the board. An emerald-green disk sat in the center, between stacks of red, green, blue, and yellow cards.

“Choose a category!” said Mr. Lemoncello.

On the screen, an animated yellow card flipped over to reveal “classic children’s books.” Suddenly, a three-dimensional rotating plate of spaghetti—complete with a twirling fork—floated over the board.

“That is so cool!” said Pranav.

“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs!” guessed Andrew.

Mr. Lemoncello honked like a goose. “Sorry. Incorrect. Next emoji!” A rotating apple appeared next to the spaghetti.

“Johnny Appleseed’s Italian grandmother!” guessed Akimi.

Everybody sort of looked at her.

Mr. Lemoncello goose-honked again.

A third emoji appeared over the board: a fuzzy bug.

“Finding the Worm by Mark Goldblatt?” said Sierra hesitantly.

This time Mr. Lemoncello just shook his head.

A fourth and fifth 3-D emoji simultaneously materialized over the game board: a hamburger and a lollipop.

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar!” shouted Kyle.

“Ding, ding, ding!” said Mr. Lemoncello. “We have a winner!” “Yes!” Kyle arm-pumped in triumph.

“Way to go, bro,” said Miguel.

Mr. Lemoncello bopped a button on his boxy controller, and the screen went blank.

“We are all set to begin production next week so that this holiday season kids everywhere can bring home their own hologram projector at a reasonable price. It’s so cheap even my family could’ve afforded it. And we were so poor we used to eat cereal with a fork to save money on milk!” Everyone laughed.

“Thank you,” said Mr. Lemoncello. “I’m here all week.” He brandished a rolled-up tube of blueprints. “And these are the incredibletastic new game’s complete design schematics.” He bent down and pulled back the rug to reveal a floor safe.

“Should I not be able, for whatever reason, to fulfill my duties as head of the Imagination Factory, I want you, my trusted trustees, to pick up the torch and carry on. Not that I want you to burn these blueprints to make a torch, mind you, because you will need them to build the board game. You will also need to know the combination to this floor safe. Kindly keep it a secret, too, for it is the same series of random letters I use all the time: R right. E left. A right. D left. That’s right. There’s nothing left. It’s just R-E-A-D. The key to unlocking everything in the universe!” Across the table, Katherine Kelly was writing the combination down in her small notebook. Kyle didn’t need to. He could memorize four letters. Heck, anybody could.

“So much for fun and games,” said Mr. Lemoncello. “Let’s move on to the next item on our agenda. Lemoncello Library business.” Sierra, Pranav, and Andrew clapped.

Kyle wanted to play another round of Fantabulous Floating Emoji or hear the exciting announcement Mr. Lemoncello had promised he was going to make. Library business sounded boring.

“It’s time for my major announcement!” said Mr. Lemoncello.

Woo-hoo, thought Kyle. So much for being bored. It was showtime!

“To thank you all for your dedicated service,” said Mr. Lemoncello, “I have created a brand-new, board-members-only board game—without a board!” Kyle leapt out of his seat. “Yes!”

He pumped both fists over his head.

Everybody else just stared at him.

“Sorry.”

Kyle sat back down.

“No need to apologize, Mr. Keeley!” exclaimed Mr. Lemoncello. “For I am as excited as you are. Now then, where was I? Ah, yes. My dining room. But this game will take you far, far away from here! And if you win, it will take you even farther—on a tour of libraries all across North America!” Now Kyle was super excited. He and his family had never really done much traveling. Except to Disney World. Once.

Oh, they’d also been to Cedar Point, an amusement park in Ohio. Kyle tried to forget that trip. His brother Curtis had thrown up on the Corkscrew roller coaster. Kyle was in the seat in front of him.

“What’s this new game called?” asked Akimi.

Before he replied, Mr. Lemoncello struck a finger-pointed-to-the-sky pose, just like his statue in the fountain in the lobby of the library—only there wasn’t any water spurting out of his mouth.

“Mr. Lemoncello’s Fabulous Fact-Finding Frenzy!” Angus Harper’s hand shot up.

“Yes, Angus?”

“Are you sure it’s a game, sir? Finding facts sounds an awful lot like a homework assignment.” “Oh, it’s a game, all right,” said Mr. Lemoncello. “Perhaps the most challenging one any of you will ever play. That’s why the prize is so amazerrific. And why only ten of you will even have a chance of winning it!”