THEA STILTON AND THE SECRET OF THE OLD CASTLE
Publisher: Scholastic
Thea Stilton is the famous journalist Geronimo Stilton's sister. This series is about the adventures of her five friends – who call themselves the Thea sisters.
Her friends are of various nationalities - Australian Nicky who loves the outdoors, French Colette who loves fashion, Chinese Violet who is sensitive, Peruvian Paulina who loves helping others, and Tanzanian Pamela who loves sports and fixing things.
The Thea sisters find themselves heading to Scotland in this book to help their friend Bridget who returned home to Scotland to attend a family reunion to make an important decision. A few days later, she sends Violet a text message asking for help. When Violet tries calling her, Bridget does not answer her phone and is uncontactable.
In Scotland, the girls get themselves some motorbikes and head straight to MacNamouse Castle. They find no Bridget. Instead, they discover that Bridget's clan (family) is arguing over what to do with their castle – they're divided between conserving it and turning it into an “amousement” park.
The mouse heading the plan for the amousement park is Angus, supported by his sons Connor and Liam.
What surprises the Thea sisters is that Angus and his boys don't seem the least concerned that Bridget left Mouseford Academy but never made it to MacNamouse Castle.
Smelling a rat, the girls nonetheless plod on – they are taken on a tour of the castle by caretaker Ewan, whose family has helped take care of the castle for many years. He introduces them to some history behind the MacNamouse clan and brings them over to Molly House to stay. Molly House is run by his mum.
The girls know instantly that as much as they dislike Angus and his sons, they have an instant liking for Ewan and his family who are so warm and seem to have embraced all the Scottish traditions and even serve them traditional dishes.
The next day, the girls set off in search of Bridget, thinking that she might be staying with friends. However, they are being followed by Connor and Liam. They need to lose the two boys first.
Soon after losing the two mice, the girls meet an old rodent who takes them to the lighthouse to reunite them with Bridget!
Bridget then relates the tale of the missing will of her ancestor and head of the clan – Alistair MacNamouse. While Bridget rushes off for the family meeting, it's up to the Thea sisters to find the missing will. Bridget suspects that the will unveils the true person to inherit the castle and it might not be anyone in her family!
The nice thing about this Thea Stilton book is that it takes readers to another country – in this case Scotland. And, it teaches kids new words – like clan and kilt – and also the culture – the food, bagpipes and a bit on the geography.
The five friends are all different and special in different ways. They really are sisters in the way they get along and know each other so well. It's a great way to teach kids that their best friends and “sisters” can come from people who are of different nationalities and backgrounds.
I can see a lot of young girls liking this series. It's got mystery, adventure, fun, girl power and it is even informative and educational.
I only wonder why Thea Stilton herself was not part of the adventure. Having only read this one book in the series, I am not sure if Thea does join the girls in the other books. I hope she does; somehow I think that would add to the fun.
However, the five girls on their own do make for great girl fun and adventure. If I were a girl reading this book, I would want to read more books from this series to learn about other countries and also to find out more about each of the five main characters. One book is not enough to flesh out each of the characters – I can only hope that more is revealed about each of them in the other books.
Well done. Good book. Great for your eight to 12-year-old girls. While boys can of course read it too, I somehow doubt they will enjoy it as much as the girls would.
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