Geronimo Stilton Journey Through Time #2: Back in Time product reviews

I was excited to read this book as it engages the reader on a lot of levels, the pictures are fantastic and invite the reader to want to know more.


First thing I noticed was how heavy the book was but that was soon explained by all the extra information included with the book, I really liked how the information about the customs and maps were included as part of the story and you were not left wondering about how things worked. I also thought it was a great idea having the journal at the end of the book with games and activities to encourage further explorations into the history of the time periods mentioned in the book. It is great that the book could explain things in a child friendly manner.

I am enjoying these books and I know my boys are enjoying looking at the bright illustrations and my older son is trying to work out what might happen in the story, he has tried reading the book but he finds it just a little above his reading level but not for long. Gone are the days when children's books were boring and had a lot more words than pictures, it is fantastic to see how the author has made the book interesting for kids, history is never an interesting subject for kids but presented this way there might be a bit more interest in the subject.

It was with great excitement that Mr 5 and I realised that there was another Journey Through Time book by Geronimo Stilton. We loved the first one and we were sure this one would be just as good. We started reading and very quickly we settled into a very familiar writing style. Each night that we read the book together we struggled to only read a chapter or two (the usual rule in our house), we simply had to keep reading chapter after chapter. It was great that the chapters were quite short and therefore very manageable regardless of how much time we had to squeeze a chapter or five in!

This book has comics throughout the book which summarise the previous chunk of text. Mr 5 enjoyed going back through these by himself as there were only small amounts of text to go with the picture. This allowed him to develop a bit of independence with his reading. Given that we had already read the section of text together, he was able to follow the story.

I have an interest in ancient Rome and I enjoyed reading the book, in particular the first journey in the book which covered an adventure in ancient Rome. The other periods in history covered are The Maya Empire and The Age of the Sun King. There is a fabulous combination of adventure, facts and history. As a general rule, Geronimo Stilton books would be aimed at children who are older than 5, however, my Mr 5 loves them. The only part he struggled with in this particular book was the full pages of fact and history. It is all new to him and therefore doesn't have any previous knowledge to build on. At times I limited how much of those bits I read to him. For me, I really enjoyed the fact that I could gain some knowledge for myself while reading a child's book.

Mr 5 enjoyed the pages that had illustrations with numbered parts so that he could work out what each item was, e.g. a diagram of Roman thermal baths. He wondered why there were separate areas for the men and women. It was a great discussion starter. The Rodent Relocator also inspired him and we had fun making up our own version of it. He even did some drawing to record his design.

This book is a bit different to the other Geronimo Stilton books that we have read as it doesn't have quite as much adventure and edge of your seat excitement. However, we still very much enjoyed the slower paced, history based story line.

The illustrations are in the same style as the other Geronimo Stilton books, bright, detailed and interesting to look at. They tell a story by themselves and will entertain Mr 5 for quite some time by himself. I often found him "reading" this book for a prolonged period of time in his bed at night. Every page has got interesting illustrations and varied font size and colour to capture the attention of children.

The great thing about reading these books to Mr 5 now is that he will enjoy them again hen he is able to read them independently. In fact, the other day, as we were driving to school, he started to read the odd bit out loud to me. I was so happy to hear him being able to read little bits of the books he loves to much. I don't think it will be long before his nose is stuck in Geronimo Stilton books all by himself!

For a great mix of fun, imagination, history and learning, Geronimo Stilton, the 2nd Journey Through Time Back in Time is a great read. I am sure that adults and children will both enjoy the chance to share the book together.