The Goosebumps Series by R.L. Stine

It’s the Last Saturday of September!

Everyone ready for a marathon of horror books for the mouth of October?

Let’s get started with a popular book series that is sure to give you goosebumps (pun intended).

 Elementary School

Readers beware! You’re in for a scare!

I’d be very surprised to hear about a child who hasn’t heard about this series. The Goosebumps book covers you see above are the book covers I grew up seeing at libraries and bookstores. Book companies change the cover art on older book series to make them seem more current but I prefer the originals. Goosebumps has many spin-off series but I’m just going to talk about the original series. Which, to me, are the best.

My favorite part about the Goosebumps stories is that the parents are never involved. They’re either not there, don’t believe the kid, are the problem or are completely useless. The thing I loved most about these book is that they never had an ending. They always left you with a twist.

I watched an interview with R.L. Stine, or as he’s been referred to as the “Stephen King of children’s literature”, on a Goosebumps DVD and had a lot of great information about the author and the whole series. Apparently, he wrote all of the Goosebumps books on an old typewriter using just one finger. If you want to learn more about R.L. Stine, check out his biography.

That’s right people! The great R.L. Stine originates from Ohio! This proves that the greatest people come from Ohio. Yay Ohio!

But the terror doesn’t stop at the books. When I was a kid, every October on Cartoon Network, they would have marathons of the show based on the books and I looked forward to it every year. I was scared of most stuff as a kid but this show was just the right amount of spooky that I was able to handle it. It was mostly because the special effects looked so fake, but to me, that’s what made it great. The show is now available on Netflixs for anyone who’s interested. 

I wish someone had made this movie sooner but I guess they wanted to wait for special effects to get better. I also wish that R.L. Stine had played himself in this movie. Don’t get me wrong; Jack Black was great but still. R.L. Stine did make a cameo at the end of the movie. He pulled a Stan Lee. Ha ha!

The reason why I’m posting about this series now is because Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween is coming to theaters October 12. This movie will be taking place years after the first one and the R.L. Stine house has been abandoned. We’ll be getting a new cast of characters and Jack Black will be returning as R.L. Stine. I’m hoping the real R.L. Stine will make another cameo. 

This weeks’ Weird but True Fact about R.L. Stine

Each book in R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series took about 8 days to write.