Geronimo Stilton is pretty stilted despite its novelty. The book’s strength lies in the creative and colorful splash of fonts, making some words jump off the page at you. While the fonts are fun, they are sometimes hard to decode for young readers. I’ll admit the aesthetics of it attracted me and my 9 year old twins to the series. They wanted to buy several of the books, but we settled on one: It’s Halloween You Fraidy Mouse. The twins and I curled up together on the couch—one on each side of me—and we began to read. Within 10 minutes one twin jumped up and said “I’m gonna go out and play, Mom.” Five minutes later the other twin was zzzzzonked.
Published by Scholastic, the book appears to have no author, other than the fictional Geronimo Stilton, who is also the narrator and main character. Unfortunately the story, characterization and dialogue are overshadowed by the fun fonts and cheesey cheese cracks. Geronimo is an annoying bachelor mouse who publishes his own newspaper, The Rodent’s Gazette. He’s a ‘fraidy mouse who obsesses about food and hates snakes, spiders and getting dirty. Riding on planes, trains, boats, and walking too fast make him sick. He crumples like a used “Cheesey Chew Wrapper,” over the slightest fright. In It’s Halloween, You Fraidy Mouse, the female characters are flat and tiresome, either bossing the males around or doting on/stalking them. The humor in this series is lazy and relies heavily on corny mouse-isms, and not-so-clever word-plays like famouse and fabumouse.
This book is definitely a thumbs down for me. I won’t waste my time reading any more Geronimo Stilton!
Published by Scholastic, the book appears to have no author, other than the fictional Geronimo Stilton, who is also the narrator and main character. Unfortunately the story, characterization and dialogue are overshadowed by the fun fonts and cheesey cheese cracks. Geronimo is an annoying bachelor mouse who publishes his own newspaper, The Rodent’s Gazette. He’s a ‘fraidy mouse who obsesses about food and hates snakes, spiders and getting dirty. Riding on planes, trains, boats, and walking too fast make him sick. He crumples like a used “Cheesey Chew Wrapper,” over the slightest fright. In It’s Halloween, You Fraidy Mouse, the female characters are flat and tiresome, either bossing the males around or doting on/stalking them. The humor in this series is lazy and relies heavily on corny mouse-isms, and not-so-clever word-plays like famouse and fabumouse.
This book is definitely a thumbs down for me. I won’t waste my time reading any more Geronimo Stilton!
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