By Geronimo Stilton
A jittery mouse newspaper editor gets dragged on a treasure hunt to a mysterious island he would much rather avoid.
Geronimo Stilton runs a newspaper in New Mouse City and wants nothing more than a quiet life with his books. Then his adventurous sister Thea, his cheapskate cousin Trap, and his sweet nephew Benjamin turn up with a treasure map, and before he can say no, the four of them are sailing off to find the Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye. Geronimo panics through the whole thing, seasickness, a storm, a spooky island, while everyone around him charges ahead. The fun is watching the most nervous mouse in the world survive an adventure he never wanted.
This is the step sideways from time travel into funny treasure-hunt adventure, and it hooks the same child. The pages are colorful and busy, with words that change size and color and shape as you read, which pulls in a child who finds a plain page of text a slog. The chapters are short, the jokes are constant, and there are dozens upon dozens of these, so a child who takes to Geronimo has bought themselves a very long stretch of bedtimes. It's an adventure and a giggle at the same time.