How a little mouse with a red tie is changing our kids' lives

By Sharan Saikumar

On the opening day of the Bandra Festival, actor Rahul Bose nostalgically bought along his dog-eared copy of The Diary of Adrian Mole to read to children at the newly opened MCube library, to take them on a trip down memory lane. Unfortunately, he was never allowed the journey. The kids, instead, dragged him into their world, demanding Harry Potter (typically the 10-and-up crowd) and a strange sounding Geronimo Stilton (the nine-and-down crowd).

Ten-ups won easily (size is usually a good argument) and so the very young and the very restless were subjected to a reading of Percy and Padfoot, which was liberally peppered with words like ‘detritus’ and ‘anomaly’ and concepts like subterfuge and slavery. So they did what they always do when elders engage them in something that doesn’t fire their imagination – switch off and play truant. And the fed-up mother concludes: he just doesn’t like books.

Parental stress on building The Reading Habit is at an all-time high with advice by child psychology experts, internet forums, peers and teachers flowing in freely into the ears of the hapless mother who just can’t get her child interested in reading. She’s done the bedtime routine, even prepared a reading corner, but he prefers Doremon. Or his dad’s iPad. Or doodling. She wonders if it’s because of her own lack of reading, a fault in the school curriculum, or more alarmingly, a manifestation of some ADD. It’s never crossed her mind that it could be because he’s not been given the right books.

According to Vibha Kamat, who manages the MCube library, the reading habit typically develops between the ages of six and nine. It is precisely this bracket that’s weak in inspiring material. On one side of the age spectrum we are flooded with books for infants and children below the age of six, the big colorful ones that perform the function of visual aids; on the other end, the usual suspects sit smugly – heavyweights like Harry Potter, Famous Five, Roald Dahl & Hardy Boys with their text-filled pages, multiple plot lines and biggish words aimed at pre-teens. Between these two is a gaping void into which we seem to be losing their natural-born love of stories.

Indian publishers have attempted valiantly to fill that void, pushing out titles from time-honored traditional fables, myths and Panchatantra, to keep the young in touch with their heritage, culture and to inculcate the right values. These sermonising books might fulfill the role of the missing grandparent in urban nuclear families but they’re hardly a source of wonder. Deepa Agrawal at Indian Folklife believes that “while kids might be moved by the story of Rama’s exemplary life, thrilled by Hanuman’s feats and inspired by Arjun’s valour, their reading experience remains incomplete without a fiction which is more present-day. They need stories that deal with current issues, science fiction, the adventures of children like themselves.”

And this is precisely where the nattily dressed mouse with a green jacket and a red tie elegantly steps in. Geronimo Stilton is the editor of The Rodent’s Gazette and he’s the poster boy at 9 Down Street. Kamat says that MCube made the unholy error of starting off with one copy of Geronimo but the outrage that followed quickly sent them off on a massive buying spree. An obscure mouse from Italy – hardly a nation known for exporting top-notch fictional heroes — is one of the few literary characters who has been popular enough to warrant his own multi-city tour in India — a privilege previously reserved for the the likes of Shrek, Mickey and other film based luminaries.

So, what makes Geronimo hot property? Opinion on the Internet veers towards the simple fact that it is one of the only series written at a solid third-grade reading level. A blogger mom adds, “Geronimo Stilton is wonderful cross between a graphic novel and a traditional chapter book. The reading experience is intensely fun. Not only are there colorful illustrations on every page, maps and labelled illustrations at the beginning of each book that tags all the characters in the series, but the text itself jumps off the page. Different fonts, sizes and colors are used to emphasise thoughts, dialogue and important plot points effortlessly weaving in topics like science, history into the narrative. In the end, you feel a bit as though you’ve just watched an episode of a Saturday morning cartoon.” And that’s saying something!

The Hindu went so far as to congratulate the series “on reviving the joy of reading and bringing even the most reluctant of readers into the fold.” In a fundamental way, Geronimo Stilton seems to be doing to the 9 Down generation what Chetan Bhagat did for a significant portion of the 17-up — introducing them to the wondrous world enclosed within the pages of a book. The big difference is that Geromino is doing it for an age group that’s not distracted by mini-skirts. They’re better placed to build within them a profound love for books that will transform their world-view every single day, for the rest of their lives. Long after the mini-skirts have gone.

As a blogger, ex-marketer, evangelist of socialfootprint.in and would-be novelist, Sharan Saikumar wears many hats, none of which really fit.