‘GERONIMO STILTON’ LANDS TOP AWARD AT BOLOGNA’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL LICENSE! GLOBAL CHALLENGE

Classic Book Series From Atlantyca Entertainment and Licensed Worldwide (Except Italy) By MoonScoop’s Taffy Entertainment Awarded Grand Prize

Geronimo Stilton, the award-winning international kids’ chapter book series, was awarded the Grand Prize at the first-ever international License! Global Challenge, held April 2 at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Bologna, Italy. Atlantyca Entertainment, the worldwide rights holder on the Geronimo Stilton brand, joined Taffy Entertainment, the worldwide (except Italy) consumer products licensor, in presenting the property to an international jury of licensing industry leaders at the Fair, alongside several other entries chosen from among all the properties submitted to the TV/Film & Licensing Rights Centre.

The Bologna Children’s Book Fair, in partnership with License! Global magazine, launched the new contest this year to showcase the publishing properties with the highest merchandising potential. Comic books, Manga, children’s books, novels and more were eligible for consideration. The only restriction was that the property could not yet have had a licensing program. License! Global’s editorial staff selected the list of finalists who were showcased during the session held at the Fair. The international jury of licensing industry leaders together chose Geronimo Stilton as the single Grand Prize winner.

The Geronimo Stilton books are published worldwide and are available in over 30 languages, including Italian, where they are published by Edizioni Piemme [Mondadori Group], in English, published in the U.S. by Scholastic, in French, by Albin Michel Jeunesse and in Spanish by Editorial Planeta. The book series centers on the life and adventures of a best-selling author, Geronimo Stilton who happens to be a mouse living in New Mouse City on Mouse Island. Geronimo is an intellectual mild-mannered mouse who despite wanting nothing better than to live a quiet life, works as the editor-in-chief of the most famous Mouse Island’s newspaper: The Rodent’s Gazette and keeps managing to get involved in far-away, marvelously humorous capers with his younger sister Thea Stilton, cousin Trap Stilton, and favorite nephew, nine-year-old Benjamin Stilton.

“We are honored to be the first recipient of this award,” said Pietro Marietti, Chairman of Atlantyca Entertainment. “The children’s publishing industry is full of creativity and wonderful ideas, so it’s particularly gratifying that a jury of industry leaders chose to recognize our efforts from among all the other very worthy brands in the marketplace.”

“There is an incredible amount of heart and creativity in Geronimo Stilton,” said Cynthia Money, President, Worldwide Consumer Products and Marketing for Taffy Entertainment. “It’s one of those book series that parents love to enjoy with their kids and it’s great that the industry leaders who awarded this prize understood how much fun this brand can be.”

The Geronimo Stilton books were first published in Italy in May 2000 and to date have sold over 16 million in Italy alone, with over 25 million sold worldwide. The book series has garnered numerous additional awards, including The Cenacolo Award (2000) for Publishing and Multimedia Innovation and The Andersen Prize (2001) as the Personality of The Year. Geronimo’s My First Internet Manual won the International Children’s e-book Award in 2002 and last year was honored at the Italian Nickelodeon’s Kids Choice Awards in the best book category. Atlantyca and The MoonScoop Group are also currently producing a new animated television series (26 x 22’) based on the Geronimo Stilton characters.

About Atlantyca Entertainment.

Atlantyca Entertainment was established in September 2006, a result of the worldwide publishing success of celebrated kids book series Geronimo Stilton and the entrepreneurial astuteness of creator Pietro Marietti, who, along with Elisabetta Dami, produced one of today’s most successful junior publishing sensations. Atlantyca was appointed as the licensor of the Geronimo Stilton book series and is responsible for seeking new business opportunities for the books and all of its character spin-off franchises. The company seeks co-production partners to produce content for TV, movies, and multi-platform for a variety of their renowned book properties including Ulysses Moore and Tea Sisters. The company aims to ensure the continued success of all of their currently owned properties and will develop new properties annually as part of their production and distribution growth plans.

About Taffy Entertainment

Part of The MoonScoop Group, Taffy Entertainment (www.TaffyEntertainment.com) is a leading worldwide distribution, brand management and entertainment company representing brands from some of the largest animation producers across the globe. This includes the prolific Mike Young Productions; MoonScoop Productions, the top producer of animation in Europe; and select properties from third parties. Taffy’s library for distribution and/or consumer products includes the Emmy® Award-nominated series “ToddWorld,” “Dive Olly Dive!” and “Growing Up Creepie,” as well as “Pet Alien,” “Titeuf” (TooTuff), “Mix Master,” “Fantastic Four,” “Code Lyoko” and “Casper,” among many others. With offices in Paris, Los Angeles and Shanghai, the company has fully-integrated production, distribution, licensing, merchandising and marketing facilities. It also has a library that includes over 3,000 half hours of animation, encompassing some of the most recognizable worldwide brands and best-loved animated creations in the global television market. The company also distributes to leading broadcasters in 160 countries around the world.