Geronimo Stilton

Geronimo Stilton is an Italian children's chapter book series created by Elisabetta Dami and written under the pen name of the title character. Scholastic Corporation began publishing the English version of the series in the US in February 2004. In the UK, the English books are published by Sweet Cherry Publishing. The series is set on a fictional version of Earth dominated by anthropomorphic mice and rats and focuses on the title character, a mouse who lives in New Mouse City on Mouse Island. A best-selling author in-universe, Geronimo Stilton, works as editor and publisher for the newspaper, The Rodent's Gazette. He has a younger sister named Thea Stilton, a cousin named Trap Stilton, and a nephew, nine-year-old Benjamin Stilton. Geronimo is a nervous, mild-mannered mouse who prefers a quiet life, yet keeps getting into faraway adventures with Thea, Trap, and Benjamin in both fictional and real locations. The books are written as fictional memoirs of him on these adventures. The books are designed and distributed in full color, depicting important words in the text as colored and in illustrative typefaces. The series, combined with many spin-off series, has sold over 180 million copies worldwide, and with over 200 entries, it is one of the best-selling book series. The books have been translated into 49 languages, with more languages in progress. The series has also been adapted into an animated television series of the same name, theatrical shows, and video games. Creation In the 1990s, Elisabetta Dami found herself unable to have children, so she volunteered at children's hospitals to deal with this. Inspired by Patch Adams, who participates in Clown Care, she told humorous and adventurous stories starring the character of Geronimo Stilton and teaching morals to entertain patients. They appeared to love the stories, which would lead to her writing and publishing such stories. This character was born from my heart to bring me closer to a dream I sadly was not able to fulfil: that of having children. ... I started doing volunteer work with sick children. It was at the time when an American doctor called Patch Adams taught us that children need to laugh in order to recover ... I invented and told funny stories about a clumsy mouse that had lots of adventures, with twists in the plots and guaranteed happy endings. I wanted to entertain children, see their eyes bristling with joy and create a bridge toward enchantment.