Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics

Wordplay is a motif that recurs throughout the novel, reinforcing its lighthearted tone and its thematic claims about The Joy of Intellectual Challenges. Woody Peckleman’s name is meant to comically evoke the name of the cartoon Woody Woodpecker. Andrew Peckleman jokes about a malfunctioning video game that “[m]aybe Mr. Lemoncello made a lemon” (66). Lemoncello himself is especially fond of wordplay. Puns abound in his dialogue, and he uses devices like zeugma frequently, as when he sends an invitation that says “YOU…ARE HEREBY CHERRY CORDIALLY INVITED” (27), and when he tells the contestants “I am so glad to see you here this evening because this afternoon my optometrist gave me eye drops and I couldn’t see a thing!” (73). He uses allusions to famous book titles in his speech before the regional finals, telling the contestants that “Ohio fire codes do not permit occupancy by more than three hundred and twenty-five million people, even if they are all little women” and reminding them that “books are the true breakfast of champions” (46, 47). Similarly, he creates a pun on the name of famous author Charlotte Brontë when he dismounts from his animatronic Brontosaurus, saying, “Thank you, Brontie…By the way, I love your sister Charlotte” (113).