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Summary
Summary
New from the author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and coauthor of the I Funny series with James Patterson! Celebrate the power of imagination with this action-packed New York Times bestseller that shows that sometimes the real story starts after you close the book!
What if your favorite characters came to life? Billy's spending the summer in a lakeside cabin that belongs to the mysterious Dr. Libris. But something strange is going on. Besides the security cameras everywhere, there's Dr. Libris's private bookcase. Whenever Billy opens the books inside, he can hear sounds coming from the island in the middle of the lake. The clash of swords. The twang of arrows. Sometimes he can even feel the ground shaking. It's almost as if the stories he's reading are coming to life! But that's impossible . . . isn't it?
" A wonderful tale . . . . This book is like no other I've read. It's a complete original ." --James Patterson
"Kids will enjoy the cartoonish mayhem , especially given Grabenstein's breezy narrative voice and jaunty wit ....as in 'Lemoncello', there is a winning generosity and sweetness to the story's telling." --The New York Times
"Chris Grabenstein gleefully plunders great works of literature for his cast of secondary characters . . . a madcap mash-up that 8-to-12 year olds will want to devour in big gulps ." -- The Wall Street Journal
" Effortlessly readable and a whole lot of fun ." -- Booklist Reviews
Author Notes
Chris Grabenstein was born in Buffalo, New York on September 2, 1955. He studied journalism and theater at the University of Tennessee and then moved to New York City. For five years, he performed and won awards with some of the city's top Improvisational Comedy troupes. He wrote for Jim Henson's Muppets. In 1986, he and Ronny Venable wrote a TV movie for CBS called The Christmas Gift. He also worked as an advertising executive for close to twenty years.
He won the Anthony Award for best first mystery for his first adult mystery Tilt-a-Whirl. His other novels for adults include Mad Mouse, Whack-a-Mole, Hell Hole, Mind Scrambler and Rolling Thunder. He received another Anthony Award and four Agatha Awards for his work. His books for younger readers include Escape from Mr. Lemonchello's Library, The Island of Dr. Libris, the Treasure Hunters series, the Haunted Mystery series, the Riley Mack series, and the I Funny series written with James Patterson.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Billy is spending the summer in a cabin on a lake with no TV, internet, or video games. The cabin's owner, Dr. Libris, has a large collection of books that Billy is welcome to use if he can find the key to the bookcase cabinet. Needing distraction, Billy tackles puzzles in the library until he finds the key. He begins reading The Twelve Labors of Hercules when he looks up he notices an island in the middle of the lake where two enormous men are fighting; Billy conjured up Hercules and Antaeus simply by reading about them. Grabenstein mixes up a melange of characters from the books Billy (and eventually two neighbor children) reads, with Hercules, Robin Hood, the Three Musketeers, Maid Marian, and Pollyanna coming together in dangerous escapades. Even modern myths show up: video game creatures and wizards from trading cards. Reader Heyborne gives each a quirky trait that adds even more color to the story. For example, he gives Robin Hood a delightful over-the-top laugh; the Musketeers have recognizably French accents but are easily understandable; and the video game Space Lizard's ultra-hissy sibilant voice will give listeners shivers. Heyborne's performance conjures up the magic of literature and the excitement of summer. Ages 8-12. A Random hardcover. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Twelve-year-old Billy and his mom rent a summer cottage from the mysterious Dr. Libris, who is sneakily conducting experiments on Billy's imagination. Billy can read characters to life--Hercules, Robin Hood, the Three Musketeers--creating fiction-fueled adventures with his friend, Walter. Dr. Libris's lab notes are interspersed with humorous, quick-paced, action-packed chapters. A list of books mentioned is appended. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Grabenstein follows up his best-selling Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (2013) with another playful title paying homage to classic works of literature. Billy Gillfoyle is not thrilled at the prospect of spending his summer stuck at Dr. Libris' weird lake cabin with his mom, who's too busy finishing her dissertation to entertain him. Throw in a neighborhood bully and the potential of his parents splitting up, and Billy's summer is off to an awful start. But when the characters in the books he reads start coming to life from Hercules to Robin Hood to Pollyanna Billy's summer quickly goes from dull to adventurous, even dangerous. Grabenstein's economical prose is perfectly suited for this novel, which teems with appeal for a variety of readers, from those who will catch all the literary references to those who enjoy a good fight scene. Readers will appreciate Billy's cleverness in solving his ever-growing problems, as these literary characters make plenty of trouble outside the confines of their intended stories. Effortlessly readable and a whole lot of fun. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The publisher is banking on the popularity of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library there's a national tour and major media exposure in the works for Grabenstein's latest.--Barnes, Jennifer Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
IT'S A STANDARD beach-read setup: Young Billy Gillfoyle thinks he is going to spend a dull summer at a cabin by a lake, watching his parents' marriage sink. But in "The Island of Dr. Libris," Chris Grabenstein has more devious plans in mind for young Billy. Deprived of TV and Internet access, Billy starts working his way through the cabin's extensive library. As he reads about the trials of Hercules, he hears distant sounds of battle coming from the island in the middle of the lake. As he reads "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood," the cries across the water take on a suspiciously Olde English flavor. Rowing out to investigate, he discovers that whatever classic he reads manifests itself on the island. "The Three Musketeers," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Tom Sawyer," "Journey to the Center of the Earth" - they all spew up their dramatis personae into a chaotic jumble of swashbuckling anachronism. Billy and his asthmatic pal, Walter, have to figure out what's summoning these fictional foes and heroes before their summer reading list gets deadly. This kind of mash-up is in the air right now - witness the "Night at the Museum" movies and "Into the Woods." Though the premise is familiar, kids will enjoy the cartoonish mayhem, especially given Grabenstein's breezy narrative voice and jaunty wit. ("Billy," sighs the boy's mother, trying to get him to read. "What do you think kids did back before video games or TV or even electricity?" "I don't know," he replies. "Cried a lot?") The solutions to the book's conundrums are somewhat less ingenious and more haphazard than those in Grabenstein's earlier, Wonka-esque "Escape From Mr. Lemoncello's Library." On the other hand, as in "Lemoncello," there is a winning generosity and sweetness to the story's telling. There are not many of us who could mix sunny Pollyanna with a prehistoric sharkodile and avoid spilling blood. Will "Dr. Libris" lead nonreaders to pick up Verne, Dumas or Twain? Who's to say? But they may well enjoy reading Grabenstein. Another sweet-toned, summer-fun story of the meeting between kids and their favorite characters is "Finding Serendipity," by Angelica Banks (who is, to add to this metafictional hall of mirrors, actually two Tasmanian authors, Heather Rose and Danielle Wood). Young Tuesday McGillycuddy comes from a family that delights in wordplay, rhyme and alliteration. When her mother, author of a world-famous fantasy series, disappears, Tuesday sets off to find her with the help of the adorable family dog, Baxterr (sic, or maybe sicc - Tuesday explains that Baxterr has the extra "r" "because rrrr is what he will say if anyone ever tries to hurt me"). Searching for clues at her mother's typewriter, the girl follows a silver string of words out the window and is tugged up into the air, arriving eventually at the mysterious place in the clouds where authors get their ideas. With the help of a snot-nosed (literally) teenage author of an action series, Tuesday manages to find her way into her mother's final sequel, where she meets the characters in person - not only the charismatic fantasy heroine Vivienne Small (who has one elf ear, one normal ear, bat wings and go-go boots) but also her nemesis, the ghastly, half-dead pirate Mothwood. In the end, young Tuesday realizes that she herself is an author just like her mother, with the gumption to take narrative into her own small hands. The plot's allegorical logic - it is really about the struggles of a young writer trying to find courage and her own voice - is occasionally a little hazy, especially because the book's view of authorship is not so much practical as heroic and mystical. ("The magic comes from nowhere but within you. . . . Stories want to be told. Stories have a power of their own, and they choose their writers carefully.") Sure, authors occasionally do fly through the night sky to meet up together in a disembodied realm where reality and fantasy meet; it's called the Anaheim Convention Center. But usually revision, as well as miraculous inspiration, has a role to play. Nevertheless, young writers will find inspiration in the tale - especially those who have a story within them but might be too shy to tell it. M.T. ANDERSON'S novel "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing. Vol. I: The Pox Party" won a National Book Award in 2006.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-Billy is not thrilled to be spending the summer in a cabin on a lake in the middle of nowhere. His mom and dad aren't together, and he's worried this change may be permanent. Their cabin is owned by Dr. Libris, who also owns the mysterious island in the lake. With a lack of technology, and bullies as neighbors, Billy resorts to searching for a key to open the bookcase in Dr. Libris' study. What he unlocks brings classic books to life-when he reads the books, he hears the action somehow occurring on the island. Curious, he ventures out to the island to explore and discovers the unbelievable-somehow the stories he is reading are actually happening. When he meets Hercules, Zeus, Robin Hood, Tom Sawyer, and others, he becomes embroiled in their adventures and unwittingly causes the storylines to collide. When Billy brings his neighbors, Walter, and Walter's sister, out to the island, they all face treacherous foes including the giant from Jack in the Beanstalk and a space lizard from Walter's comic book. Billy is left trying to figure out whether Dr. Libris is behind everything, whether his own mind may be the culprit, and whether or not he can use the island to help save his parents' marriage. While the plot is unique, the story feels too far-fetched to be believable, and lacks the magic of Grabenstein's Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (Random, 2013).-Michele Shaw, Quail Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Billy Gillfoyle discovers that a powerful imagination can bring characters from booksand comic books, video games and role-playing-game cardsto life.Unhappily spending the summer with his mother in a lakeshore cabin she's rented from a university colleague, the 12-year-old finds no Internet or TV but plenty of books in a locked cabinet. (Finding the key is a relatively easy puzzle.) When he reads The Trials of Hercules in Dr. Xiang Libris' library, he hears the voices of Hercules and Antaeus outside. They're fighting on an island just offshore. Reading Robin Hood, he hears the sound of swordplay. When he explores the island the next morning, he meets the characters he heard, not only brought to life, but also interacting with each other. Grabenstein's similarly powerful imagination unfurls a grand series of adventures in which Billy and neighbor Walter Andrews are pursued by the Sheriff of Nottingham, search for buried treasure with Tom Sawyer and save Billy's parents' failing marriage. In this entertaining literary romp, the author includes references to over 20 classic tales, from Aesop's Fables to Holes. For curious readers, he's listed the titles at the end, but familiarity with these stories is not required to appreciate this fast-paced fantasy. Readers will wish their summers were so eventful. (Adventure. 9-13) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
