Geronimo Stilton Kingdom of Fantasy #2 : The Quest for Paradise

Geronimo Stilton Kingdom of Fantasy #2 : The Quest for Paradise

301 pages

Published by Scholastic Inc. (2010)

This is the second book in Geronimo Stilton’s Kingdom of Fantasy series, which follows Geronimo’s adventures in the Kingdom of Fantasy. This time, Geronimo returned to the Kingdom of Fantasy when he was summoned by The Queen of the Fairies, Blossom.

There are many other kingdoms within the Kingdom of Fantasy, including the Kingdom of the Fairies, the Kingdom of the Witches, the Kingdom of the Mermaids, The Kingdom of the Dragons and so on. Geronimo was brought to the Kingdom of the Fairies by Blossom’s messenger, the Dragon of the Rainbow.

The beautiful castle of the Queen of Fairies, Blossom

It turned out that Blossom wanted to send Geronimo on a quest to find ‘Paradise’ and to bring back the ‘Heart of Happiness’. His only clue regarding its location was that the Map of Paradise can be found in the dangerous Land of the Ogres. Some fairies also tipped Geronimo on picking up the keys he should find along his journey.

Geronimo then set off to find the Heart of Happiness with his motley crew of the flying Dragon of the Rainbow, sweets-loving Boils the Chameleon, the talkative Goose Blahblah, Oscar the kind-hearted and caring cockroach, and Snowy Dawn, the sad and silent Princess of the Snow. Geronimo named the group The Heart-Finders Club.

Riding on the back of the flying Dragon of the Rainbow, they first went to the scary and stinky Land of the Ogres to look for the map. The Land of the Ogres is situated next to the Kingdom of the Witches, and both kinds are allied to one another. The Heart-Finders Club experienced their first brush with danger as soon as they arrived.

The Dragon of the Rainbow was shot with a poisonous arrow, and Geronimo had to deal with the dangerous and meat-eating Three Witches in order to get the antidote for the poison. The Heart-Finders Club also encountered Cackle, the beautiful but evil Queen of the Witches, and the filthy Baldsquash, the King of the Ogres. Geronimo later had to sneak into Baldsquash’s castle and risk his life in order to get his hands on the Map of Paradise.

Cackle, the Queen of the Witches

With the Map of Paradise, Geronimo discovered that the Kingdom of Fantasy was much, much bigger than he had previously thought! Beyond the Kingdom of the Witches and the Land of the Ogres, there are places such as the Land of Sweets, the Land of Toys, the Kingdom of Comfort, and the Land of Gold – all of which they had to pass through, according to the map. The Map of Paradise indicated that their journey will end at the Land of Fairy Tales.

And so The Heart-Finders Club resumed their journey to find the Heart of Happiness. Their first stop was the Land of Sweets, which was made of all types of sweets and inhabited by people made of cookies. The Heart-Finders Club had an audience with the ruler of the Land of Sweets, Queen Chocolatina (who sat on a throne that looked a lot like meringue!) to ask if she had any information regarding the Heart of Happiness.

Queen Chocolatina said she would give them the answer if Geronimo would make her a sweet that she had never tasted before. And so Geronimo baked her his specialty cake, the Cheesyful Cake. It turned out to be a hit with the queen and she really liked it that Geronimo also taught the royal cook how to prepare one. But in the end, regarding Geronimo’s inquiry on the Heart of Happiness, the only thing Queen Chocolatina could tell him was that the Heart of Happiness is not in the Land of Sweets!

Queen Chocolatina's yummy castle in The Land of Sweets

So the Heart-Finders Club continued their journey into the Land of Toys, where the inhabitants are all toys and it is always play time. They met the King, King-in-the-Box IV, who thought Geronimo is a very lovely stuffed animal! When asked about the Heart of Happiness, the king challenged Geronimo to a live chess game instead. The king cheated in the game, but he eventually lost anyway. The toys then told Geronimo that the Heart of Happiness is not in the Land of Toys.

The Heart-Finders Club then passed through the peaceful Kingdom of Comfort, where everything was made of something soft such as cotton and cushion. They had a good rest at the Kingdom of Comfort before continuing towards the Land of Gold.

The Land of Gold was abundant with all types of precious treasure one can imagine – buildings made of gold, an ocean of pearls, trees glittering with precious stones, and so on. The Queen Dorothy who ruled over the land is a golden statue who talked like a robot. There was no other inhabitant in the Land of Gold because it was uninhabitable. The bed was made of gold and it was hard to sleep on it. There was no water coming out of the faucet but a stream of diamonds. Worst of all, the food were totally inedible as they were made of various types of precious stones!

Finally, the Heart-Finders Club reached the Land of Fairy Tales with much anticipation. There are no kings and queens that rule the Land of Fairy Tales, as the inhabitants already consisted of characters from fairy tales, legends and fables from all over the world.

Geronimo and his team went to see the Talking Book, which was supposed to know everything. But, alas! The Talking Book informed them that the Heart of Happiness cannot be found in the Land of Fairy Tales! Confused and exhausted, the Heart-Finders Club reluctantly embarked on their return journey to the Kingdom of the Fairies – empty-handed.

As Geronimo and friends approached the Kingdom of the Fairies, he pondered about the crystal keys he had found and collected since they began the journey. Before he left, the fairies had hinted that he should pick up all the keys he would find along the way. And now, Geronimo had 33 of them in his pocket!

Eventually Geronimo discovered that the crystal oak tree near Blossom’s castle actually had a small door with 33 locks on it. Immediately, he unlocked all of them using the crystal keys he had collected. The door led him into a crystal cave, where a waterfall was flowing into a spring at the centre of the cave.

Inside the spring, Geronimo found seven hearts made of different materials; there is gold, silver, amber, ruby, sapphire, emerald and crystal. There was an inscription at the bottom of the spring saying that only one of them is the Heart of Happiness. He had to guess and choose wisely, which, of all those hearts, is the Heart of Happiness. Geronimo finally chose the Heart of Crystal, and luckily his decision was correct. He had found the Heart of Happiness!

Two of the seven hearts Geronimo found inside the crystal cave

When the Heart-Finders Club presented the Heart of Happiness to the Queen Blossom, the queen merely smiled, took the heart and ordered another fairy to put it back inside the Crystal Cave where Geronimo found it. Geronimo was in total shock as they had gone through a lot just to get the Heart of Happiness. And now the queen simply wanted the heart to be returned to the place where they found it!

Blossom then told Geronimo that finding the Heart of Happiness is not important. The most important thing that the queen had wanted him to learn from was the journey itself. Indeed, Geronimo realized that happiness can be found within oneself, and that the search for the Heart of Happiness was one very happy adventure indeed. The Heart-Finders Club, which began as an awkward group, completed the journey as very good friends. Even the sad and silent Snowy Dawn was, in the end, feeling happy and could finally talk her sorrows away. Blossom then proclaimed Geronimo as the Ambassador of Happiness before he was sent back home. 

The next day after his return from the Kingdom of Fantasy, Geronimo felt happier and in a better mood than ever before. He now wanted to spread happiness to his townsfolk because he believed happiness is contagious. Geronimo began to do simple things but his actions did bring smiles into the life of others. Geronimo really lived up to his title as the Ambassador of Happiness!

"Everyone searches for paradise, but not everyone knows where to look..."


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