Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 04/01/2022 *Starred Review* In this prequel to a series dear to the hearts of game and puzzle fans—not to mention librarians—13-year-old Luigi L. Lemoncello confirms his calling to become the greatest game designer ever while picking up experience in putting on a grand show, fending off bullies, and making people happier. Hoping to help support his big, financially strapped family, middle child Luigi jumps at the chance to work with wise, genial, fast-talking barker Professor Marvelmous, who runs a booth at the summer carnival where prizes can be won by popping balloons and guessing the rebuses hidden behind them. Along with depicting numerous rebuses so that readers can have at them too, Grabenstein tucks connections to subsequent episodes into his tale, including taglines (“Knowledge not shared remains unknown”) and characters like Luigi’s inventive friend Chester Raymo and sneering nemesis Chad Chiltington. Also, in the course of following a series of clues left by Marvelmous to a life-changing reward for his beloved niece Maggie, Luigi invents a string of entertainments, from an author/title treasure hunt in his local library—using books that were popular in 1968 when all this is set (and mostly still are today)—to an early version of Wordle. An “awesometastic” lead-in likely to inspire a wave of revisits to the earlier books.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Mr. Lemoncello's Library was a New York Times best-seller, and fans of the blockbuster series will be thrilled to puzzle their way through the future famed game-maker's origin story. - Copyright 2022 Booklist.