Mr. Lemoncello and the Titanium Ticket

Chris Grabenstein's Mr. Lemoncello's Very First Game opens with Kyle Keeley and Akimi Hughes, two young gamers from Ohio, beta-testing a secret gaming experience inside a mysterious building behind Mr. Lemoncello's Gameworks Factory in Hudson Hills, New York. They complete all eight puzzle-filled stations but cannot crack a final puzzle involving sixteen glowing letters. A hologram of the eccentric billionaire game maker Luigi L. Lemoncello hints that the prize, a titanium ticket, will lead to "the most important game ever played in the history of gaming."

That same night, twelve-year-old Simon Skrindle, a nearly invisible seventh grader at Hudson Hills Middle School, sneaks onto the factory grounds. Friendless and insatiably curious, Simon loves taking things apart and rebuilding them. He solves six riddles to navigate three security gates, but the final gate stays shut. A recorded Mr. Lemoncello congratulates him and activates comically excessive security measures. Kyle and Akimi tell Simon that Mr. Lemoncello is "a big fan." Jack McClintock, a classmate whose father Buck is the factory's head of security, arrives to confront Simon but privately marvels that Simon solved all six riddles, a feat Jack could not manage.

Simon's home life explains his isolation. Both parents died when he was an infant in what his grandfather calls a "tragic accident in Asia." His grandfather, Sam Skrindle, publicly denounces Mr. Lemoncello and bans all Lemoncello games from the house, making Simon a social outcast. Simon channels his inventiveness into an attic workshop, building board games, constructing gadgets for his grandmother, and playing a salvaged glockenspiel, a small percussion instrument, to help himself think. At school, he quietly excels at puzzles but stays invisible.

Simon's life shifts when Soraiya Mitchell, a science-minded classmate whose father manages the Gameworks plant, befriends him. She tricks his grandparents into signing a permission slip by disguising it as a cookie receipt. During a class tour of the factory, Simon suggests making the plastic injection heating tube horizontal for energy efficiency. Mr. Lemoncello's hologram announces that the top four finishers at the company picnic will enter the secret building to compete for a titanium ticket. After the tour, Mr. Mitchell hands Simon a personal invitation from Mr. Lemoncello.

Meanwhile, Dr. Yanina Zinchenko, Mr. Lemoncello's librarian, and Chester Raymo, his chief designer, tour the secret building and hide the titanium ticket. The building houses the Board Game Hall of Fame, an indoor amusement park where classic games come to life. A Dedication Room contains a marble wall honoring "all the clever engineers who have made so many wild and fantastical ideas leap to life. Most especially Sally and Stephen Skrindle," Simon's parents.

At Saturday's picnic, Mr. Lemoncello descends in a lemon-shaped hot-air balloon and urges Simon to register. Simon wins twenty bonus points at a giant wobbly-block tower game. In a rebus competition, where players decode picture-and-symbol puzzles, Simon rises to first place but deliberately hesitates on the final answer, fearing that publicly defeating Jack will worsen his life. Jack wins, and Simon drops out of the top ten but still qualifies thanks to his bonus points. Soraiya reveals that Simon's parents both worked at the factory, a fact his grandparents never shared.

Twelve contestants advance to the Slippery-Sloppery Sidewalk Board Game, a messy obstacle course where players collect flags through challenges in local shops, then sprint through a "Zoom Zone." Fellow contestants Piya Sarkarati, Soraiya, and Carolyn Hudson qualify first. On the final run, Jack distracts Simon by shouting that his grandfather is watching. Simon pauses, gets struck by a swinging hammer, and falls into a chocolate crater, losing all his flags. Jack claims the last qualifying spot.

After Simon's defeat, Akimi explains that Kyle has fallen ill. Because only Ohio partners are permitted in the competition, they need Simon to disguise himself as a substitute. Haley Daley, one of the Ohio gamers, transforms Simon with a prosthetic nose, rubber chin, shaggy wig, and leather jacket, dubbing him "Mario." Mr. Lemoncello unveils the Board Game Hall of Fame and announces that he has no heir: The winner of the titanium ticket tournament will one day inherit his entire gaming empire. Soraiya is teamed with "Mario," while Mr. McClintock privately tells Jack to win "at all costs."

The eight contestants enter the Hall of Fame for a two-hour scavenger hunt. The atrium features a towering grandfather clock with animated figurines and a moon phase dial that glows on the hour. Each team's iPad directs them to eight exhibits where they solve puzzles and earn letters filling a seventy-six-letter phrase; certain letters marked as lemons form a final code. Soraiya recognizes Simon behind his disguise but keeps the secret. They push through exhibits while competitors slow down. When Jack and his Ohio partner, Andrew Peckleman, beat them at a giant Connect Four game, Mr. Lemoncello offers an alternative nine-dot puzzle; Simon solves it multiple ways, earning a "bendable bonus card" that can bend one rule.

During a Battleship water-balloon fight, a balloon knocks off Simon's disguise. Jack demands disqualification, but Mr. Lemoncello invites Simon to use the bendable bonus card to waive the Ohio-partner requirement. Furious, Mr. McClintock allies with Simon's grandfather and sneaks him into the building.

With forty-five minutes left, Grandpa Sam pulls Simon into a dim side room and shares his version of events: Mr. Lemoncello sent Stephen and Sally to China to scout a new factory, their plane crashed, and Lemoncello is to blame. After his grandfather leaves, Mr. Lemoncello speaks through ceiling speakers, explaining that Simon's parents convinced him to keep the factory in Hudson Hills and that the Hall of Fame honors them. Soft lights illuminate the Dedication Room wall as Mr. Lemoncello grows emotional. Soraiya finds Simon and asks whether he wants to pass or play. Inspired by the wall's inscription, "The future belongs to the puzzle solvers," Simon chooses to play.

Simon and Soraiya race through their remaining exhibits while Jack cheats, using a staff-only controller from the Pimple Pete exhibit and his father's security camera app. Jack's partner, Andrew, objects and quits. Jack uses the Pimple Pete exhibit's giant mechanical head to drop Simon and Soraiya through a trapdoor. In the basement, Simon improvises a pneumatic elevator by plugging a foam apple into the chute and riding compressed air back up.

As the grandfather clock strikes eight, Simon realizes the sixteen glowing lemon letters are musical notes forming the Westminster chimes, the familiar clock-tower melody the grandfather clock plays every hour. The figurines animate, and a titanium ticket slides from a hidden slot beneath the glowing moon, high above the floor. Simon builds a climbing wall from stacked game boxes while Jack scales the Giggle Wiggle exhibit's giant caterpillar. Soraiya pilots the colossal Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot to topple the caterpillar, knocking Jack out of the race. Simon reaches the clock face, opens its glass door, and pulls out the titanium ticket as balloons, fireworks, and music fill the atrium.

At the postgame celebration, Simon and Soraiya share the titanium ticket. Simon's grandfather, softened by his wife Sophia's reminders of the good Mr. Lemoncello brought to their family, publicly apologizes and embraces Simon. He presents Mr. Lemoncello with engineering drawings from Stephen Skrindle recommending the same horizontal heating tube Simon independently suggested. Mr. Lemoncello declares the tournament will continue. Simon and Soraiya affirm that "this game has just begun."