Read an Excerpt
“I love this wacky game!” shouted Kyle Keeley.
He probably shouldn’t’ve been shouting, because he was in the middle school library playing video games with his friends Akimi Hughes, Sierra Russell, and Miguel Fernandez.
Actually, he probably shouldn’t’ve been playing games on a library computer, either. This was supposed to be his “independent reading” time.
But just the night before, while watching his former classmate Haley Daley’s new TV show, Hey, Hey, Haley, on the Kidzapalooza Network, Kyle had seen a commercial for Mr. Lemoncello’s new What Else Do You See? It was an online puzzle game filled with fast-flipping, high-flying animated optical illusions.
Was it fun? “Fun?” Haley chirped at the end of the commercial. “Hell-o? It’s a Lemon-cell-o!”
Kyle just had to try it. As soon as possible! (Which turned out to be “independent reading” time.)
“This is level one,” he said as a puzzler popped onto the screen with a ticking ten-second countdown clock.
“Easy,” said Akimi, typing as fast as she could on the keyboard. “A vase and two faces. Or a candlestick. That vase could be a candlestick.”
“It’s a classic,” said Sierra, who was something of a bookworm and brainiac. “Optical illusions are an excellent tool for studying visual perception.”
“Or, you know, having fun,” said Kyle.
Akimi hit return. The screen exploded into pixelated confetti, which settled to spell out “Congratulicitations!”
“Let’s move up to level two!” said Akimi, eager for more.
“You guys?” said Miguel, glancing toward the librarian. (He was president of the school’s Library Aide Society.) “We should probably go back to reading our books. . . .”
“In a minute,” said Kyle, clacking the keyboard. A fresh optical illusion appeared: a road sign. The timer started counting down from ten again.
“That’s just Idaho,” said Miguel. He couldn’t resist the lure of a Lemoncello game, even though he knew he should. “See? ‘I-D-A-H-O’!”
“What about an old guy?” asked Kyle.
“Nope,” said Akimi. “It’s just Idaho.”
She hit enter.
A buzzer SCRONKed.
“Okay. My bad.”
“Do the next one!” urged Sierra.
Sierra Russell never used to get all that excited playing games. But then she met Kyle Keeley and the legendary game maker Luigi L. Lemoncello.
Kyle clicked the mouse. Up came a new image and a new ten-second timer.
“A woman’s face!” said Sierra.
“Nope,” said Akimi. “A saxophone player with a ginormous nose. No, wait. You’re right. It’s a woman’s face. Nope. Saxophone player with a big nose . . .”
“It all depends on how you look at it,” said Miguel.
“Type in ‘woman’!” said Sierra.
“Nope,” said Kyle. “ ‘Saxophone dude.’ ”
“ ‘Woman’!” shouted Miguel. “No. Wait. Both!”
One more thing Kyle and his friends probably shouldn’t’ve been doing? Talking so loudly.
Because Mrs. Yunghans, the middle school librarian, strolled over to see what all the noise was about.
And Charles Chiltington was right behind her.
