Adventure

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Maybe I just don't like listening to this kind of book aloud, but I found the whole thing annoying. My kids enjoyed it, though! ( )

Get ready for another fast-paced adventure with the smart, timorous, and hilarious mouse, Geronimo Stilton. Geronimo is the editor of The Rodent’s Gazette. He likes life to be predictable and enjoys relaxing, but he gets roped into going on an adventurous family vacation to the Pirate Islands. On the way, their plane crashes into the ocean and when they escape (by applying a worse-case-scenario survival technique that Geronimo read about in a book), the family gets stranded on a desert island with a ghost, leeches, giant crabs, and the pilot of their plane who drives Geronimo CRAZY. They survive a ton of ordeals and manage to find a very special treasure before finally making it back home to New Mouse City.
Geronimo Stilton pushes the boundaries of what a chapter book can be. Illustrations decorate every page, ranging from small sketches to traditional half- or full-page illustrations to maps, diagrams, and pages “inserted” from books that Geronimo is reading. Even the typefaces are varied to add to the story by calling out and adding excitement to key words and phrases. The fonts may make some words harder to read, but this pushes new readers to become adept at recognizing letters in a variety of forms; the Geronimo fans I consulted don’t have any problem with this device. Chapters are quite short, two to five pages. It may take a few chapters to get through a particular episode, such as the encounter with the ghost, but chapters end in cliffhangers to keep readers going and to transition between episodes. Many unfamiliar and made-up words are used, but readers at this stage will be able to sound out most of them. Unfamiliar words are often defined in the text, while the made-up ones are easy enough to make sense of.
This is a great choice for a reader transitioning between higher-level easy readers and more traditional chapter books. The fast pace, exciting story, and visual variety will appeal to readers who may be bored or unchallenged by easy readers, but not quite ready for uninterrupted pages of black and white text. The stories are not for everyone, as some readers may be bothered by the brevity of the episodes and the busyness of the pages. Nevertheless, Shipwreck on the Pirate Islands and the other books in the Geronimo Stilton line are highly recommended for children’s and elementary school libraries. ( )