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. The series has also been adapted into an animated television series of the same name, theatrical shows, and video games. There are 309 books in total, including spin-offs.

Creation

In the 1990s, Elisabetta Dami found herself unable to have children, so she volunteered at children's hospitals to deal with that. 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. It was already Geronimo, the shy mouse that ... naturally, as a firm believer in teamwork, ended up calling on the help of his many friends. Thanks to him I became a mum to millions of children and experienced the friendship that helps one achieve everything, as well as honesty and sincerity that instill value in every single gesture, not to mention the curiosity and sense of adventure that keep you going."

Characters

Books

Not all books and spin-off series are listed. The following lists are of ones that have been or are planned to be released in English.

Geronimo Stilton

Geronimo Stilton: Special Edition

Geronimo Stilton: Mini Mystery

Anniversary Edition

The Kingdom of Fantasy

The series chronicles Geronimo's adventures in a magical world known as the Kingdom of Fantasy.

The Kingdom of Fantasy: Special Edition

Thea Stilton

The series is aimed toward female audiences and focuses on the Thea Sisters, a group of five friends who are from different continents and were the students of Thea Stilton.

Thea Stilton: Special Edition

Thea Stilton Mouseford Academy

Thea Stilton and the Treasure Seekers

Creepella von Cacklefur

This series follows Creepella von Cacklefur, one of the recurring characters of the main series.

Cavemice

The series focuses on Geronimo's ancestor, Geronimo Stiltonoot, in the Stone Age where dinosaurs co-exist with mice and prehistoric mammals.

Spacemice

The series is set in a parallel universe based on space opera, featuring Geronimo Stiltonix as the captain of the entire spaceship MouseStar1.

Heromice

The series focuses on Geronimo Superstilton and the Heromice, a team of superheroes who live in Muskrat City and watch over the crimes prevailing in the city.

Micekings

The series is set in the Viking Age and stars Geronimo Stiltonord, who lives in the village of Mouseborg and faces fiery, mouse-eating dragons every day.

The Journey Through Time

Classic Tales

The series are adaptations of public domain literature with anthropomorphic mouse characters.

Thea Stilton Classic Tales

Graphic novels

The English translations of the graphic novels are published by Papercutz.

Thea Stilton graphic novels

Geronimo Stilton Reporter

Taking the place of the original graphic novels, the Geronimo Stilton Reporter series are adaptations of episodes from the Geronimo Stilton animated series, which ended the year before the first entry was published.

Geronimo Stilton the Graphic Novel

The graphic novels are illustrated by Tom Angleberger.

Reception

Publishers Weekly review of Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye praised the book for its fast pace, chapter format, full-color design, and usage of colored typefaces. Kirkus Reviews' review of the Special Edition book The Hunt for the Hundredth Key states that "the simplistic mysteries and silly jokes are in line with other series outings, 'special edition' status notwithstanding." Its review of Geronimo on Ice! found it to be average, criticizing the plot holes, and remarks that it "skates by without landing any impressive tricks." Kirkus Reviews' reviews of Cavemice entry The Stone of Fire and Spacemice entry Alien Escape were positive, albeit criticized the slow pacing at the beginning of the former. Its review of Creepella Von Cacklefur entry Fright Night felt the plot wasn't "the strongest of Stilton spinoffs". Its review of The Kingdom of Fantasy entry The Enchanted Charms was mixed, criticizing the plot for not being original and appealing enough, but praising the art and incorporation of puzzles.

Other media

There are also audiobooks of the Geronimo Stilton books published by Scholastic Audio Books, available on CD and as downloadables through various services such as OverDrive and Audible. There are three stories in the first three collections (1–3, 4–6, 7–9), book 10 is sold by itself, and the remaining books are sold in pairs (11–12, 13–14, 15–16, 17–18, 20–21, 22 and 24, 25–26). Books 1 through 10 are read by Edward Herrmann. Books 11–18, 20–22 and 24, and 25–26 are read by Bill Lobley.

Television series

An animated series of the same name debuted in Italy on 15 September 2009. The show ran for 78 episodes across three seasons (26 episodes for each season) with the series finale airing on 28 February 2017.

Theatre

The Kingdom of Fantasy series has been developed into a musical theatre show, which has been performed in Spanish in Barcelona, Spain, in Dutch in Hong Kong and the Netherlands, in Dutch and Flemish in Belgium, and in both English and French in Montreal, Canada. In 2016, Oregon Children's Theatre produced Geronimo Stilton: Mouse in Space, a world-premiere adaptation of Mouse in Space! by John Maclay, and the first live-action production of Geronimo Stilton media in the United States. The production was performed in Canada in 2018.

Video games

Sony Computer Entertainment partnered with Virtual Toys to develop two video games based on The Kingdom of Fantasy series for PlayStation Portable. The first, Geronimo Stilton in the Kingdom of Fantasy, was released in Europe on 3 November 2011. The follow-up, Geronimo Stilton: Return to the Kingdom of Fantasy, was released in the continent on 31 October 2012. In North America, both titles were released exclusively on the PlayStation Store on 16 July 2013.

Film

A film based on Geronimo Stilton has been in development since 2002. In February 2023, Radar Pictures acquired the rights to make a feature film based on Geronimo Stilton. The film is a co-production between Radar and Italian company Atlantyca Entertainment, which also produced the television series, with DreamWorks Animation veteran David Soren attached to write and direct and Anthony Tringali, Michael Napoliello and Maria Frisk set to produce under Radar Pictures.