TOP PICK: Activity and painting books from the superhero franchise at the fair on Monday. (Bhola Prasad)

The menace of monkey men is interesting enough for GenNow to dump classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird and The Hobbit, if reading trends at the 29th Jamshedpur Book Fair are anything to go by.

If you are clueless about this simian threat, fret not.

It is a part of the comic series of Bollywood’s first superhero franchise Krrish, launched by Filmkraft Productions and Graphic India.

Krrish comics, riding high on the success of Krrish 3, is selling like hot cakes at the 10-day book fair that started on November 15.

“If there are 10 children at the fair, you will see eight of them buying Krrish books. Though there are Krrish toys, games and other merchandise, we are only offering the books on Krrish’s adventures. In three days, we have already sold over 100 copies,” said Sanjeev Saha of Mermaid Books.

Those looking to buy a book on the adventures of Krrish will be spoilt for choice. There’s a whole series, ranging from pop-out mask books, colour to four-in-one activity books. All these are available at the book fair. The prices of the books start from Rs 75 and go up to Rs 250.

Teenagers, who often look for best-selling paperbacks by Chetan Bhagat, Ravinder Singh and the likes, are getting plenty to browse from.

Serious literature buffs, who buy a Tagore or a Tolstoy tome, are also not disappointed. And non-fiction is also a popular choice at the fair.

I am Malala by Pakistani schoolgirl and education activist Malala Yousafzai and The Test of My Life by cricketing icon and cancer survivor Yuvraj Singh are top picks.

But how many times have you heard a two-year-old book flying off the shelves?

Sachin: Born to Bat by veteran journalist Khalid A.H. Ansari and edited by Clayton Murzello is an exception.

“Sachin retired on November 15 and that made the book more popular. Now, people are keen to read about the little master. We have sold all the 15-odd copies we had. Teenager Malala has also been in news and so her book is doing good business. The good part is the books are reasonably priced,” said Tapas Kumar Das of publishing firm Evolve.