Edison: The Mystery of the Missing Mouse Treasure by Torben Kuhlmann is a short and sweet children’s chapter book that utterly captured my heart. It’s illustrations are fascinatingly intricate and beautiful while the story the book tells was quite impressive.. The book gets off to a curious start, one that left me intrigued and slightly worried. Due to the shortness of the book, I had wondered how the author would include a story interesting enough to keep my attention and not feel much to short of a read. To my immense pleasure, Kuhlmann managed to develop a brilliant tale for young readers that not only is fun to read but accomplishes something a lot of fiction and children’s reading material doesn’t often do.

The inclusion of science along the journey of the two main characters, an old Professor mouse and a young mouse called Pete, to find out what had happened to Pete’s ancestor and the treasure he had mentioned having in his farewell letter to his family. The plot is cute and to the point, leading into the author’s own personal research on a particular important moment in history and the truth behind it, which a great many kids wouldn’t know about just yet. Often times in school, kids are taught names and the accomplishments those names are related to, but not a great lot about the history behind it. Ironically enough, I recall a little about the lesson this book cites in particular as it is taught to young children due to my role as an educator and I was thoroughly impressed with how the author is informative about such an important piece of history in a way that school sometimes, is not.

This is a great book to read your kids and a great way to get them interested in science, so long as you continue the conversation further after finishing the story. It’s not the most intricate plot or anything like that, and often the illustrations take over and tell the story at times—which, admittedly, I enjoyed immensely but can understand how some others might not—but it truly is a brilliantly creative tale that introduces knowledge about historical inventions that are wonderful for young children to be exposed to.

ARC Copy...very Jules Verne in style and adventure type approach which makes it enjoyable to read. The illustrations were very lavish and a sight to behold. It would inspire younglings to be adventurous and inventive themselves.

I love the sketches and the illustrations in this book! It is also a cute read with adorable mice that brings a fantasy element into a real topic. I like the length of this book and it will make a great transitional read for younger students.

Two mice are on an adventure to the bottom of the sea to discover sunken treasure! Edison: The Mystery of the Missing Mouse Treasure is a wonderful little tale about two little mice who may have found a missing piece of history, specifically the light bulb. No job is too big for a mouse after all, even building a submarine!

I really enjoyed this book. It was light and fun. The illustrations are gorgeous and put me in mind of illustrated children's books from when I was a kid. I definitely recommend this one to young readers. 3.5/5 stars

Possibly the Best of the Bunch

This is the third mouse adventure book by Torben Kuhlman, following on his transatlantic flying mouse book and his mouse on the moon book. This time we search for undersea treasure. Make no mistake, these aren't just tales of mice scurrying around in the walls looking for cheese and avoiding the cat. These are gorgeous, clever, stirring tales that are broadly conceived, stunningly executed, and remarkably engaging.

To be fair, the "plots" as such are slight and the text wanders around a bit. In this book Pete and the Professor plan to search for a sunken treasure that was lost by one of Pete's ancestors. Fair enough. The devil and the delight is in the details. Kuhlman has a fascination with inventions, thingies, and odd mechanisms. He has a draftsman's eye and mad drawing skills. These may be the only kids' picture books that feature whimsical schematic drawings. So, you take fanciful mechanisms, adjust them to accommodate the requirements of mousey inventor/adventurers, and launch them into the air, toward the moon, or undersea.

Kuhlman works in watercolors and pen, which allows him to work on a big canvas, yet with exquisite attention to detail. The scenes feel real enough, but are quite fanciful and timelessly old-fashioned in their settings. Perhaps it is that odd combination of realism, period romance and mechanical fancy that make his works so appealing. What would a mouse-made, mouse-size submarine look like? Torben knows. Read this book and you and your child will know too.

(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

In this charming story of a young mouse, Pete, pairs up with a mouse professor in an adventure to learn more about Pete's ancestor. Along the way we learn the professor has been to the moon (referencing an earlier Kuhlmann book titled *Armstrong- The Adventurous Journey of a Mouse to the Moon*) and his lifetime of experiences & vast array of knowledge, along with some good ol' library digging, give them enough information to go forth and find out something even more fascinating than "just a treasure map!" Pete proves to be one very determined guy, perhaps a characteristic in his DNA from the very ancestor they're investigating.

Torben Kuhlman's artwork is truly breathtaking making this book a collection of art that is conversation-worthy. Paired with the sweet story, the beautiful illustrations bring to life yet another "mouse tale" in American history.

This is an adorable book, apparently part of a series of books about famous mice.

The first book was about a mouse that flew, called <em>Lindberg–The Tale of the flying Mouse. </em>The second book was about the first mouse on the moon (who went along with the American astronauts?). This third book is about the professor, who we find out, was the mouse that walked on the moon.  But this is not his story, but the young mouse, Pete, who is trying to find a treasure of his ancestor, which is on the ocean floor.

Just look at these detailed illustrations. With the bookstore, you can almost smell the must of old used books. Look at the detail in the book covers. These look like cars, in the background and in the scene of the repair shop, of the 1960s, although the boy, in the book shop looks straight out of the 1940s. I don't think I ever saw any kids dressing like that when I was growing up.

And yes, I know this is a fantasy, but I can't wrap my head around when it is supposed to be happening. Did mice land on the moon before humans? Did they do so in the 1950s? Is this story happening in the 1960s?

But, if you can get around all that, this is a sweet story of perseverance, while Pete and the Professor find a way to get to the ship wreck under the sea, and solve the mystery.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-721" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-10.26.02-PM.png" alt="Edison" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-718" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-9.34.22-PM.png" alt="Edison" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-717" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-9.36.21-PM.png" alt="Edison" />

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-720" src="http://www.reyes-sinclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Screen-Shot-2018-07-12-at-9.37.40-PM.png" alt="Edison" />

There is even a bit at the end of the book about who else may have invented the lightbulb first.

#Edison #NetGalley

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

The illustrations in this book are simply stunning. There is also a lot of science and facts involved while Pete works to build mouse-sized diving bell and later a submarine, in the search of his ancestor's sunken treasure. This is a very long book with a lot of words, so it would be great to read aloud to an older child (or one with a lot of patience). It's also divided into chapters of just a few pages each, so maybe reading a chapter at a time would work well for a child who can't sit still long enough to make it through the whole book.

I'm pretty sure I will never be disappointed by a Torben Kuhlmann book, he is such a great painter and writer and even if his stories follow more or less the same pattern every time, they are such a pleasure for the eyes that the story matters till a certain point.

Sono abbastanza sicura che difficilmente potrei non apprezzare uno dei libri di Torben Kuhlmann perché lui é un grande disegnatore e anche se le sue storie seguono spesso la stessa trama, sono un piacere per gli occhi tanto da far scivolare tutto il resto in secondo piano.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

I can not say enough wonderful things about the pictures in this book. They are beautiful and each page is a little work of art. The story was a bit longer than expected but very cute and fun. Pete the mouse is adorable and this is a fun adventure with amazing illustrations.

I thought this would be another elementary children's book that I'd have to really work at getting my children to enjoy. Boy, was I wrong.

I had heard of Kuhlmann's talent before but was unfamiliar with his work. Going into Edison I immediately knew this was not just another children's book. Kuhlmann's Edison not only had a gripping story centered around cute and friendly mice but the illustrations were wondrous to behold.

My children just loved Pete and his adventure to discover the history behind his ancestor's treasure. Kuhlmann cleverly imparts science into all the action so that children can be educated in a subtle way about research, experiments and strategy without being weighted down by technical jargon.

And have we talked about the illustrations? I mean, we touched on it, but WOW, those illustrations. The dedication it takes to make such detailed and vivid artwork is what sets Kuhlmann's work above the rest. My children wouldn't let me turn the page until they had devoured every detail on the page.

This is a children's book worth investing in.

This is a very entertaining read for me! For a person whose first language isn't english, this one is really easy to understand yet still fun and intriguing to read!
The cute and softly detailed illustration made me feel so happy to look at it and make association to the story itself.

The story is really unique and enjoyable, but I must admit the illustration plays a big part for me to really like this book. Cannot wait for Mr. Torben's next creation!!