By Sophia Shin
Reading was a ginormous part of my life throughout elementary and middle school. I read everything from novels to cookbooks, at any time (often until 3 am, because you can’t go to sleep with an unfinished thriller), and in any location. How did my affinity, or borderline addiction, for reading come about? As a kindergarten ELD student, I hated reading; it was a chore, and I preferred picture books with minimal words. This changed in first grade, when I read my first chapter book, Magic Tree House, book #14, with the encouragement of my teacher. That series opened my eyes to the possibility that reading could actually be fun, even without illustrations. I sought and craved more and more books after that, and went on to read beyond the adventures of Jack and Annie, but historical fiction does remain one of my favorite genres.
The Magic Tree House stars two siblings, Jack and Annie, who discover a tree house in their backyard; a wooden time machine, to be precise. The treehouse allows them to transport themselves through time and space, and it is tied to the mythical world of Camelot. Jack and Annie often complete missions for the magical librarian Morgan le Fay (she’s beautiful) through their use of the magic tree house. Their adventures throughout history were truly exciting to read: they made friends with knights, Japanese poets, prairie schoolchildren, dinosaurs, and so much more; they faced dangers like tsunamis, earthquakes, a lot of wars, lions, an angry Chinese emperor, and et cetera; they visited every era and location you could imagine, including prehistory, medieval Europe, medieval Asia, the savannah, the jungle, cities from all time periods, and even the legendary Camelot and Isles of Avalon. Not only did I enjoy these books (I read every single release until #34, plus the 27 spin off “Merlin Mission” novels that are actually better than the originals), I also learned a lot from them. The settings were immersed in factual details, which not only made the series more interesting but also supplied me with a useful knowledge of various historical events, both monumental ones and the lesser-known.
Another series that I read in my early years was Geronimo Stilton—as well as Thea Stilton, originals and special editions; Geronimo Stilton’s The Kingdom of Fantasy; and Cavemice, Spacemice, and Micekings—all of which are part of the same franchise featuring talking mice who love cheese and have exciting adventures. These were SO good. For the longest time, I confidently claimed them as my favorite books — and I was the kind of indecisive person who didn’t have a favorite color, so this meant a lot to me. The only reason they stopped being my favorite was the writing style lost its impact after repeating the same themes and topics one too many times (Creepella’s crush on Geronimo, Geronimo’s beef with Sally, etc.) — you can only do so much with the same characters (who don’t really age beyond the occasional birthday) over and over again. But in its prime: the main series features Geronimo, a journalist working for The Rodent’s Gazette. He’s an anxious, clumsy, and frazzled mouse, and that’s why his narration is so fun to read. As an introvert who loves relaxing with a cup of tea and a good book, it’s fascinating how many perilous predicaments he ends up in, something Geronimo himself fails to make sense of. Geronimo Stilton is the ultimate mystery/adventure series, featuring an awkward homebody in his thirties. As an introverted bookworm myself, he was so easy to relate to. In hindsight, perhaps the series’ goal was to inspire and empower people who saw themselves in Geronimo, since protagonists with his characteristics were hard to find in other mainstream media. But at the time of reading, Geronimo was simply a hilarious and lovable mouse whose adventures, in Mouse City as well as around the world, served as my escape from reality during my elementary years.
There is so much more to love about the franchise other than Geronimo himself; namely, the fun font and frequent illustrations. Geronimo Stilton’s signature feature is its use of funky, colorful words within the black text. It’s as if they illustrate, rather than write, the writing. “Japan” may be written in purple font with stereotypically Asian geometry worked into the letters, or the word “streets” could be spelled out with brown cobblestone instead of Times New Roman. Hence, the pages of any Geronimo Stilton book are guaranteed to range from being accentuated with pops of color to resembling a work of art. The abundance of colored illustrations within the pages — another deviance from your standard chapter book — definitely factors into this.
Among Geronimo Stilton’s many spin-off series, many of which are even better than the main books, I believe Kingdom of Fantasy and the Thea Sisters special edition fantasy books deserve special mention. In both these series, the mouse characters, known and loved in their mouse world, are introduced to mythical worlds.
In the Kingdom of Fantasy books, Geronimo travels to a fantastical world explicitly called the “Kingdom of Fantasy.” It’s a world with every mythical creature you could think of—and with such diversity comes a multitude of political structures, hostility and rivalries, and problems for Geronimo to solve. The anxious, furry journalist must take up the role as a heroic knight, addressed as Sir Geronimo, to go on a series of quests to save the magical world from its villains. These books were arguably better than the original books that take place in the “real” world. Perhaps it is my love for fantasy causing bias, but the presence of dragons, trolls, princesses, and witches do make a story objectively better.
The Thea Sisters: while they are a subseries of the Geronimo Stilton franchise, they outshine the original books in so many ways. The Thea sisters are a friend group of female college students, in contrast to a millennial journalist who lives alone. There’s room to love both, and their adventures are equally entertaining, but the Thea sisters’ young adult perspective, youthful energy, and ambitious college lives set the tone for a different, more modern kind of story. Friendship is a major theme of their novels, which is beautiful to see. Not only that, the five members are from all over the world and have distinctly unique personalities—an important aspect of enjoyable writing. The main books are usually about the Thea sisters’ journeys off of their college campus and take place in a multitude of locations around the world, often with elements of mystery. Reading about their experiences has sincerely made me want to travel the world.
Beyond their real world adventures, the Thea sisters also travel to mythical realms in their special edition novels. In each book, they must save an endangered magical world—some of them are based on existing myths, some are unique to the novels. Either way, the fantasy settings—the characters, the environment, the obstacles—truly elevate the narrative, and the elements of thrill (the fantasy worlds will disappear if the Sisters aren’t successful!) made them intriguing reads that were hard to put down.
I owe so much to these books; they were an indescribably important part of my life. There were many other books I loved as well, but these two stand out—my rate of their consumption stands as evidence. During my Magic Tree House phase, I finished the full series rapidly and had to move on to other books while I waited for new releases. During my Stilton phase, I read at an even faster pace, so it was a good thing that they had so many subseries and spin offs. Both were the greatest joy of my life during the time period I read them in. The creators of these series have had such an impact on me, and probably thousands of other readers.