Thea Stilton and the Mystery on the Orient Express by Thea Stilton

Scholastic, 2013.
Recommended for 7-9 year olds. Themes: Mystery, adventure, friendship. Adventure loving Thea (Tia) Stilton, Geronimo's feisty sister, narrates this new mystery adventure set on board the famous Orient Express train. She enlists the help of five special female students from Mouseford Academy. Nicky, Colette, Pamela, Violet and Paulina who bring their intelligent mouselet strengths together to help return a precious wedding dress The Veil of Light stolen years ago from an Istanbul museum.
A great cast of Very Important Rodents, celebrity mice and a few shady characters also embark on the train journey across Europe. From heiress Peggy Ratfeller to famous painter Pablo Picamouse, the cast of characters add tension and drama to the tale as a work of art goes missing as well. The fast-paced story is filled with twists and turns, the reader is even asked to stop and think with directed clue and question boxes and asked to observe the clues hidden in the pictures.
Interspersed between the storyline are informative, factual pages on the real Orient Express Train, the Roaring Twenties and Holograms. Once again to excite and engage the reader, there are a great mix of font styles and sizes to emphasize words and phrases. The colourful cartoon style illustrations cast of rodent characters based on real life characters -combine to make this another great addition to the Thea and Geronimo Stilton series. This is definitely the most popular series in our school getting our reluctant readers excited about reading.
Rhyllis Bignell