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Life of a Reader

Goosebumps Is Still Scaring After All These Years

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It’s safe to say that Goosebumps, R. L. Stine’s super-fun-to-read scary series, turned millions of kids into readers. I remember those early days at Scholastic when we offered Welcome to Dead House for 95 cents in the Arrow Book Club to help launch the series. It took off instantly!

LOAR-Goosebumps-LD-Image1 Arrow Book Club is where kids found their thrills and chills! Here’s Arrow from 1995, with an early edition of Goosebumps.

Everyone at Scholastic Book Clubs feels a close personal attachment to Goosebumps and its origin story. And even though personally I do not like to be scared, I loved reading Goosebumps books right from the beginning—and I still love sharing them with kids and watching them get excited about reading.

R. L. Stine was known around the halls of Scholastic, where he worked for 16 years, as “Jovial Bob Stine.” He wrote many joke books for Scholastic Book Clubs and was the editor of Bananas magazine. His future wife, Jane, was the editor of Dynamite magazine, and the two worked together to create Hot Dog! magazine as well. “It was my life’s goal to have my own national humor magazine,” Bob said in a recent interview, “and I had reached it at age 28.”

Bob was a practical joker, and the accounts of his many pranks will have to stay locked up in the Scholastic Book Clubs vault. But obviously, he has a scary side too. In 1984, then-Editor in Chief of Scholastic, Jean Feiwel, asked Jovial Bob over lunch to take a stab at writing a teen horror novel called Blind Date. It was a huge bestseller and Jovial Bob decided to focus on horror.

Bob went on to write the Fear Street series for Simon and Schuster and then returned to Scholastic to create Goosebumps, his mega-bestselling, life-changing series that turned millions of kids into readers.

I remember well those heady days in the office when we could not keep Goosebumps in stock. The printers were working overtime—shipping 3 million copies per week—and Goosebumps was spun off into many different formats.

LOAR-Goosebumps-LD-Image2 In the bottom right corner is 2010’s “Creepy Hand” format, a hardcover Goosebumps Horrorland journal with story starters that had a plastic, hand-shaped clasp that held the book closed!
LOAR-Goosebumps-LD-Image3 The official Goosebumps Fan Club pack from the 1990s featuring several glow-in-the-dark items.
LOAR-Goosebumps-LD-Image4 Goosebumps movie posters: the movies featured stars Jack Black and Ken Jeong, among others. Plus R. L. Stine made a cameo! © PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy Stock Photo. 2018 movie: © Sony

Night of the Living Dummy—the Scholastic Book Clubs Book of the Week—was the seventh book in the original Goosebumps series, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

With more than 400 million copies in print—in 32 languages—worldwide, Goosebumps is one of the bestselling chapter book series of all time. The series has spawned television shows, films, merchandise, video games, and of course, Slappy, the series’s immensely popular villain.

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What People Are Saying

“Mr. Stine devotes considerable effort to the cliff-hangers that virtually dare you to try to stop reading.” —The New York Times

“These stories will captivate any reader who likes suspense, horror, and fantasy.” —Common Sense Media

David Vozar was also in the Scholastic meetings when Goosebumps was launched. Like Bob Stine, David has some things to say about his ventriloquist dummy.

LOAR-Goosebumps-LD-DVcomic Illustrated by David Vozar.

What is it about reading the Goosebumps books that kids love so much? We (along with experts) think kids like to feel scared in a safe space. A scary story is like a literary roller coaster. You buckle up and get ready for a fun ride, and when it’s over, you want to read it again and again.

And what is it about writing the Goosebumps books that still-funny R. L. Stine loves so much? His answer: “I just like to scare kids.”

Do your students want to learn even more about Goosebumps: Night of the Living Dummy and jovial puppet master R. L. Stine? Here are some resources to complement the book in the classroom:

• Watch the Book Boys Brain Break as they work together to survive a night of spooky fun and perform an original song

• Learn how a teacher uses Goosebumps: Night of the Living Dummy in the classroom in Book Talks

• Watch an exclusive video interview with author R. L. Stine in Behind the Scenes

• Download a printable activity to accompany Goosebumps: Night of the Living Dummy in Cooked Up from a Book


At Scholastic Book Clubs, we believe every child can find their identity as a reader by choosing books they want to read. That’s why in addition to the $1 Book of the Week, we’ve created spooktacular inflation-busting savings for teachers, exclusive author events, live read-aloud shows, and fun contests to get kids engaged with reading.

Thanks for reading with us!

XX,

Judy

 

This Book Is Available from Scholastic Book Clubs

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Goosebumps®: Night of the Living Dummy
by R. L. Stine
Spooky Series That Has Delighted Kids for 30 Years

SEE DETAILS

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Chapter Books,Goosebumps,Night of the Living Dummy,R. L. Stine
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A Note from Judy

Dragons are huge fans of tacos—as long as they don’t have one secret, spicy ingredient! The Book of the Week is the laugh-out-loud, fun-to-read-together picture book Dragons Love Tacos, written by Adam Rubin and illustrated by Daniel Salmieri!

Dance to an original song with the Book Boys; discover the many ways that one first grade teacher uses Dragons Love Tacos with her students in Book Talks; read an exclusive interview with Adam Rubin in Behind the Scenes; and download a free printable “Dragons Love My Tacos!” recipe activity in Cooked Up from a Book that also helps students practice sequencing.

We hope that your younger readers have a blast with Dragons Love Tacos—and remember: no salsa!

Judy Newman

President and Reader in Chief
Scholastic Book Clubs

Book of the Week

Dragons Love Tacos

by Adam Rubin, illustrated
by Daniel Salmieri
_______________________


To order the Book of the Week, you must be a Scholastic Book Clubs teacher, or the parent/guardian of a student in the classroom of a Scholastic Book Clubs teacher (sign up at scholastic.com/bookclubs).

 

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