The Discovery of America

August 31, 2009
This graphic novel series for young readers, originally written in Italian, has been translated into multiple languages and is now appearing for the first time in the U.S. The series pits an adventurous family of mice against a group of malevolent pirate cats who travel through time, threatening to change the course of history. The first two books, released simultaneously, successfully walk the line between education and entertainment, elaborating on Christopher Columbus’s journey in The Discovery of America
and on ancient Egypt in the companion The Secret of the Sphinx.
The characters are likable, the writing energetic and the drawings busily engaging. There’s also plenty of humor in the stories, and characters with names like Minestrone and Macaroni Mousaroni are sure to draw a smile from readers. The adventures of the Stilton family vs. the pirate cats offer laughs and adventure, and do a fine job of creating a world that children will want to enter again and again. Geronimo Stilton
promises good reading for youngsters and will appeal to teachers, librarians and parents for its educational component.

October 1, 2009
Grades 3-5 The Geronimo Stilton series of fiction for young readers incorporated rebus-type pictures throughout the text of the books; now Papercutz offers a series of graphic novels featuring the intrepid mouse journalist hero of those books. In this first volume, the editor of the Rodents Gazette must leave his comfortable life on Mouse Island to travel back in time via Professor Volts Speedrat time machine. Stiltons enemies, the Pirate Cats (Catardone III, Tersilla, and Bonzo Felix), have gone back in time with their own time machine and intend to prevent Christopher Columbus from reaching America in 1492. Stilton, abetted by various family members and a friend, must somehow join Columbus crew on the Santa Maria, which the Pirate Cats have already infiltrated, disguised (of course) as mice. The story has plenty of action and slapstick physical humor to satisfy both fans of the original stories and readers meeting the characters for the first time. Like the novels, this graphic novel is translated from the Italian.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)