The Journey to Atlantis is the first book in the Thea Stilton special edition series.
Description[]
At the beach by Mouseford Academy, the Thea Sisters discover a mysterious boy with blue skin washed up on the shore. He speaks an unfamiliar language, so the five mice call Thea Stilton for help. She sets the mouselings on an exciting journey to hunt for clues about the boy's origins. Could he be the prince of the underwater world of Atlantis? It's up to the Thea Sisters to get him home!
Plot[]
The story begins with Paulina staying at Mouseford Academy to assist Professor Sparkle with some of his research for sem break while the other Thea Sisters prepare to carry out their vacation plans and leave the academy. After starting with her research and spending a very stormy night alone in the empty halls of the school, Paulina goes out for a run on the beach and discovers a strange blue-skinned boy lying unconscious at the seashore. With no sign of wreckage or anything that could explain how the boy ended up there or who he was, Paulina runs to find Elly and Leopold, who help her bring the boy to the academy to be checked on by the school doctor.
The doctor examines the boy and, along with saying that the group just needs to keep him warm until he wakes up, mentions that the gold-colored tunic the boy is wearing is made out of sea silk, an extremely rare fabric that hasn't been produced in years and is made from a certain type of mollusk fiber, implying that the boy is of status. After the doctor leaves, the boy suddenly wakes up for a brief moment, murmuring something in a strange language before falling asleep again. Paulina then decides to call the Thea Sisters for help.
Once the five are reunited the following day, Paulina shows the others the boy, saying that he's a little weaker than the day before and that she hasn't a clue about where the boy came from or how he got to Whale Island. The boy wakes up for a moment, and in the brief moment he is awake, the girls give him some food and try to uncover some information about his origins by using a sketchbook and pen to communicate past the boy's language barrier. They learn that the boy is from the sea and that he was affected by the storm that came down upon the island a few days prior, but the boy refuses to give them any information about where he lives.
Rumors about the boy spread through the island like wildfire, and they inevitably reach the ears of Ruby Flashyfur, who is intrigued by what she hears and returns from her trip in Mexico to Whale Island on her family's private yacht. Ruby quickly squeezes out any information she could of the Thea Sisters about the blue-skinned boy and whisks him away to her yacht, where she arranges a fancy party in his honor against the will of the Thea Sisters and probably him. In the meantime, the Thea Sisters decide to call Thea Stilton for help, and she happily obliges.
Ruby begrudgingly invites the Thea Sisters to the yacht party, and three out of the five Thea Sisters go to the party to watch over the blue-skinned boy. At the party, the group notices two suspicious gentlemen Ruby introduces as Professor Quasar and his assistant, two scientists making a whale migration documentary Ruby's family is sponsoring. The girls make a note about how strange Quasar is, but they are unable to dwell on these thoughts because the blue-skinned boy is starting to feel very ill. The girls quickly usher the boy out of the yacht and back to the school, finding more reasons why Quasar is a suspicious fellow. Nonetheless, the girls somehow worm through the chaos the yacht party spirals into and reunite with the other two Thea Sisters and Thea, who made it to the academy.
The five watch over the boy for the night and agree to discuss what to do about the boy with Thea the next day. After breakfast, the girls are told by Boomer Whale that Quasar is looking for them and would like to have a meeting with them in the school library, which they oblige to, only to be locked in the library as a trap. Thea comes and gets them out, and she tells the girls that she booked them flights to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where an old classmate of Thea's could supposedly help them with the mystery of the blue-skinned boy.
The girls pack their bags, catch the ferry to Mouse Island and get on their flight to Buenos Aires with the boy accompanying them. The first clue they're given by Thea's friend leads them to the address Calle Latta 1, Buenos Aires: a hat shop. From there, they are led to a nearby clock shop and then Parque Tres de Febrero, and finally a place called The Library of Lost Worlds in Calle del Sol 7. In the Library of Lost Worlds, they meet librarian Fernando Towers, the person who left the clues for the girls around Buenos Aires. Towers reveals that he is an associate of Thea's classmate Kelly, and that the both of them (as well the mysterious people they met in Buenos Aires) are part of The Institute of Incredible Stories, a top secret organization based in Antarctica that is dedicated to researching and solving unsolvable mysteries like that of the mysterious blue-skinned boy. Towers gives the Thea Sisters a pass to the I.I.S that is only valid for one person and gives them time to decide who among them they should send to Antarctica.
The girls eventually agree on Paulina going to the I.I.S to represent them, and she brings the boy's medallion along with her in hopes that it will help them in their investigation. She leaves with Towers the next day on a plane to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, where they board an icebreaker headed for Antarctica. The two then go on foot to the I.I.S main headquarters and meet up with Mr. Alpha, the founder of the I.I.S.
Mr. Alpha tours Paulina around the I.I.S headquarters and introduces her to Miss Kappa, the organization's top archaeologist and Thea's classmate Kelly Parker. Kelly examines the blue-skinned boy's medallion and the symbol on it, deducing from its similarity to a document in the institute's catalogue that the boy is from the fabled kingdom of Atlantis and that he is of Atlantean nobility.
Meanwhile the other Thea Sisters are faced with a tense situation where a suspicious person at the hotel lobby is looking for them. The girls send a picture of the person to Paulina in the I.I.S., who learns that the person looking for them is Quasar (who mysteriously disappeared from Mouseford Academy shortly after Paulina arrived at the I.I.S.), and that he is a person heavily surveyed by the I.I.S and must not lay his hands on Atlas, the blue-skinned boy.
Paulina warns the Thea Sisters, and the girls quickly leave the hotel they're staying at and go back to the Library of Lost Worlds to meet up with an I.I.S. agent who takes them to a base in Iguazú, where they meet up with Paulina and Kelly. There, they are able to use a special machine to communicate with Atlas, and they learn about Atlas's story, as well as about a man named Antonio Voyager, a Portuguese explorer who lived in Atlantis for a certain amount of time until he returned to his hometown in Lisbon, Portugal. The information Atlas tells them gives them a lead to the Belém Tower in Lisbon, and they quickly make their way there, their goal now being to follow Antonio Voyager's tracks to find a way to get Atlas back home to Atlantis.
With translation bracelets provided by the I.I.S. to make communication easier among the group, the Thea Sisters and Atlas follow the tracks of Antonio Voyager along the Silk Road with the assistance of Thea Stilton and her research, and in every destination they go to, they find one out of three pieces of a map to the place that Atlantis is connected to; and in two out of the three places they go to, they find Quasar hot on their tail, attempting to capture Atlas and somehow knowing their every move. They quickly discover a transmitter Quasar has been using to track them, and use it to trick Quasar and get them off their trail before they head off to their final destination: Ethiopia, Africa.
The group completes the map, and they find that the place Atlantis is connected to on the surface is Whale Island, the very place they found Atlas in and the very place they live in. So after a quick snack courtesy of their guide in Ethiopia, the group take a hydroplane back to Whale Island.
In Whale Island, the group prepares to go out to sea and say their goodbyes to Atlas. Just as they are about to have Atlas board a boat and use it to head back home, Quasar makes one last attempt to capture Atlas. He is quickly stopped and incapacitated so he can no longer interfere in Atlas's journey back home, and Atlas finally says farewell to his new friends and sails home to Atlantis on a rowboat, leaving his precious medallion with Paulina.
Upon returning back to solid ground, Ruby is made aware of Quasar's fraudulence, Kelly reunites with Professor Octavius de Mousus, and Quasar escapes from his restraints and disappears without a trace.
Sometime after classes start once again, the Thea Sisters receive a mysterious package from Mercury Whale. The package contains five golden tiaras adorned with one big pearl and a large instrument-like shell. Upon blowing it and using the translation bracelets provided to them by the I.I.S., they receive a message from Atlas, announcing that he has returned home and that they might meet again one day. At the sound of the shell, a pod of dolphins approach the beach, answering the call to Atlantis.
Trivia[]
- This is the second Thea Stilton book where Thea actually helps the Thea Sisters instead of learning about their adventure after it's over, the first being The Dragon's Code.
- This is the first book where the Thea Sisters go to multiple places at once in order to solve one mystery.
- This is the first book in an all-new series, where the Thea Sisters step out of their comfort zone and solve mysteries in alternate worlds of their own world.