Edison: The Mystery of the Missing Mouse Treasure

Torben Kuhlmann Northsouth Books (OCTOBER) Hardcover $19.95 (112pp), 978-0-7358-4322-6

Behind the wall of an old bookshop, curious young mice gather for university. There, a student named Pete approaches the professor with a plea: help me learn about my ancestor and the treasure he lost beneath the Atlantic.

It’s enough to pique the once intrepid mouse’s curiosity; he gets busy helping young Pete trace his clues. The truth surfaces: to access his family’s treasure, Pete will have to go where no mouse has gone before—to the ocean floor. He experiments with diving bells; he and the professor visit the aquarium to conduct scientific research and to design their submarine.

The book’s illustrations draw from a muted palette that seems to brighten as the adventure advances. They opt for soft lines but are rich with eye-catching details and make excellent use of scale, placing the adventurous mice against grand backgrounds in wonder-waking ways.

The mice experimentally dive next to rubber duckies in the tub. Pete slouches in a schoolboy cap, the professor sports a regal mousetache and often clasps his lips around a curved pipe. At points during the mice’s experimentation and preparation, images take over the storytelling; they are thrilling and expressive enough to operate without words.

These mice are not daunted by their size or by size of the world around them; when X marks the spot deep on the ocean floor, it’s simply a starting point. The book’s sketches celebrate technology and invention—in service of Pete’s captivating adventure, yes, but also in ways consistent with Kuhlmann’s previous, celebrated titles, Lindbergh and Armstrong.

Edison is a beautiful and inspiring tale about two tiny creatures who refuse to belittle themselves by accepting the limits of “Never!” and who are awarded with history-shaping truth for their efforts.