Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics

“Everybody laughed. So Kyle, who loved being the class clown almost as much as he loved playing (and winning) Mr. Lemoncello’s wacky games, went ahead and read the whole list of banned words as quickly as he could.”

This description of one of Mr. Lemoncello’s commercials starring Kyle and his friends establishes how silly and fun Mr. Lemoncello’s games are and characterizes both Kyle and Mr. Lemoncello as fun-loving entertainers. It also slyly introduces the subject of banned books through the idea of the game’s “banned words,” demonstrating that when Kyle reads the banned words, the consequences are not terrible—they are hilarious.

“A lot of the games in the ELC were equipped with Mr. Lemoncello’s newest sensation, smell-a-vision, including one where you were a royal rat with body-odor issues, swimming through English history via the sewers of London.”

The amusingly disgusting details of how Lemoncello applies his invention of smell-a-vision in the game about the rat support the book’s lighthearted tone. They are also part of the book’s argument about The Joy of Intellectual Challenges: They demonstrate that learning can be great fun.

“Now then, how may I help you, Dutchess Susana Willoughby Chiltington the third, Esquire, PhD?”

Lemoncello adds ridiculous titles to Susana’s name as he responds to her imperious demands. His sarcasm indicates that he has taken note of her attempts to aggrandize herself with her connection to James F. Willoughby III—and he is neither impressed nor intimidated.