The Mediterranean

Geronimo Stilton

Geronimo Stilton: The First Mouse on the Moon(#14) (Italy)

In the 14th book of Geronimo Stilton’s Graphic Novel Series, The First Mouse on the Moon, Geronimo and his family are faced with a critical mission of intercepting the evil plot of the pirate cats. The pirate cats have crafted a time traveling plan to steal the spaceship technology from the Apollo 11 Moon Landing in 1969. It is up to the Stilton’s to foil their plan so that they do not get their paws on this information and increase their malicious power.

Bernelly & Harriet: The Country Mouse and the City Mouse (Greece)

Bernelly & Harriet: The Country Mouse and the City Mouse is a modern retelling of Aesop’s Fable “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.” Aesop was believed to have lived around 500 BCE in Greece and wrote politically and morally motivated stories for adults. In the original version, the town mouse visits the country mouse and is uninspired by the bland and simple food and way of life, so he brings the country mouse to the city to dine with fine foods and in luxurious style. But they are chased by vicious dogs and cat and have to flee mid-meal. The town mouse returns to the country as he values simplicity and safety over luxury and danger. In Elizabeth Dahlie’s retelling of this fable, there is no inclination that either a city life or a country life is preferable: each has its own charms and people can choose either lifestyle

Brina the Cat: The Gang of the Feline Sun (Italy)

Set in the beautiful mountains in Italy, Brina the Cat goes on a big adventure and brings the readers with her! Brinas’ human owners, Sam and Margret, take a mountain vacation, and Brina is excited for the fresh air and a chance to stretch her paws. When she meets Vespucci, a wild cat with a scar on his face, who has been betrayed by human owners in the past, Brina is offered even more freedom than she has thought possible. Vespucci entices her to escape from Sam and Margret and join The Gang of the Feline Sun, a group of wild cats. Brina carefully weighs her options: the comfort of living with owners at the expense of freedom versus a life of wild adventures but little comfort. When she does decide to escape, she is delighted to run wild and use her cat instincts. The cats can go and do whatever they please! But when some of the true colors of the gang are revealed, Brina is forced to make a hard choice again.

The Miller, His Son and their Donkey (Greece)

In this classic Aesop’s fable, The Miller, His Son and their Donkey, Eugen Sopko enhances the telling of the story by adding his illustrations. Sopko was an artist born in Czechoslovakia who moved to Germany to teach art and illustrate children’s books.In The Miller, His Son and their Donkey, all three set out on a journey; the miller is riding the donkey when someone scoffs at them and tells the miller that he should let his son ride since the boy is young and weak. So, they switch places. A little later, another person criticizes them, calling the son lazy for not letting his older father ride the donkey. So, they both ride the donkey but are rebuked by another person for being cruel to the donkey. This goes on, as each person they pass laughs at them or calls them fools for the way they are traveling. The story culminates in the moral: “you can never please everyone.”

Ghoulia: Making New Friends Can Be Scary (Italy)

Ghoulia: Making New Friends Can Be Scary is the first book in the Ghoulia series by Italian author Barbara Cantini. Ghoulia, a zombie girl, lives in Crumbling Manor with her undead family and best friend, her albino greyhound, Tragedy. While Ghoulia loves her family, being the only kid at the manor makes her feel incredibly lonely. She wants nothing more than to play with the living children of the nearby village, but Auntie Departed forbids it, fearing that if the villagers knew about their undead status, they would be run out of town. One day, while spying on the village children from afar, Ghoulia learns about Halloween and uses it as the perfect excuse to sneak out and make new friends. Can Ghoulia manage to keep her family’s big secret?

Agatha Girl of Mystery: The Kenyan Expedition (Italy)

Agatha Mistery and her cousin Dash Mistery are a pair of detectives who get called into solving mysterious situations all over the world. They also work alongside their butler, Chandler, and their adorable, yet fierce, cat named Watson. This team gets called into the most perplexing of situations and they use their quick wit and investigative skills to evade danger and solve their cases. Agatha has an impeccable memory which comes in handy when the team gets into a pinch since she can remember facts which give them clues solving the mystery. In The Kenyan Expedition, Agatha and the team are presented with a missing white giraffe deep in the Savannah desert, which holds great importance to the Masai tribe because of the desert’s rare species.

The Little Girl Who Didn't Want to Grow Up (Italy)

The Little Girl Who Didn’t Want to Grow Up is a retelling of an Italian fable. In the story set in South Africa, a young girl named Ayanda is heartbroken when her father leaves to fight in the war but does not return when the war is over. She decides that she never wants to grow up because adults are cruel and go to war. While everyone else around her grows, she stays small until her mother and grandmother get sick. Ayanda begins to let herself grow little by little to help look after her family. One day, a group of criminals attacks her village and she has to grow as big as a baobab tree to save the day.

Bernelly and Harriet

Brina the Cat

Aesop's The Miller

Ghoulia

Agatha Girl of Mystery

The Little Girl