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There's something lurking in the halls of Wilton Middle School. Something with fur . . . and claws . . . and long, sharp teeth. Something absolutely terrifying.
And it doesn't like new kids.
However believable his plots seem to his readers, Stine insists he has never lived one of his stories. "I've never turned into a bee -- I've never been chased by a mummy or met a ghost. But many of the ideas in my books are suggested by real life. For example, one Halloween my son, Matt, put a mask on and then had trouble pulling it off. That gave me the idea for The Haunted Mask."
Although he never experienced terror first hand, he did enjoy reading about it. "When I was a kid, there were these great comic books called Tales From The Crypt and The Vault of Horror. They were gruesome. I discovered them in the barbershop and thought they were fabulous. I used to get a haircut every Saturday so I wouldn't miss any of these comic books. I had no hair at all when I was a kid!"
His ideas came from two sources: his memory and his imagination. "When I write, I try to think back to what I was afraid of or what was scary to me, and try to put those feelings into books." He also keeps a tribal mask and a skeleton hanging in his writing studio to provide eerie surroundings. Although he handles the writing by himself, Stine says he gets "lots of help from my editors, my readers, and my friends."
Kids reading Goosebumps may be looking for a scare, but the laughs they get are no accident. Before he was R. L., he was Jovial Bob, author of such works as 101 Silly Monster Jokes, and Bozos on Patrol and editor of Bananas magazine. His ability to know what kids will laugh at , as well as what will frighten them, makes the Goosebumps series all the more enjoyable for his readers.
Stine started writing when he was 9 years old! He would write stories and jokes on an old typewriter and hand them out at school. "The teacher would grab them and take them away," Stine says, "but I kept doing it." He wrote for his high school newspaper in Columbus Ohio. After graduating from Ohio State University, he moved to New York City, where he worked on a variety of writing jobs.
Although his books are fun and exciting, writing them is serious stuff. He treats writing "...like a job." To unwind after work he enjoys playing the pinball machine conveniently located in his own apartment.
For aspiring authors, Stine feels reading is as important as writing. He offers this advice: "If you want to be a writer, don't worry so much about writing. Read as much as you can. Read as many different writers as you can. Soak up the styles. You can learn all kinds of ways to say things." As a boy he read Norse legends, Greek myths, Edgar Allan Poe and baseball stories. "And Mad Magazine changed my life." Author biography courtesy of Scholastic, Inc.
"My first job in New York was making up fake interviews with movie and TV stars for a group of six movie magazines. I never spoke to the stars I wrote about. I wrote three-to-four "interviews" a day, all out of my imagination."
"'I've written over 300 books but I never learned to type. I use only one finger, the pointer on my left hand -- that's all. Three hundred books on one finger! The finger is very ugly now -- completely bent and curled and callused. When I show it to audiences, they can't believe it! This is my sacrifice for my art!"
"Sometimes kids show up at my country house and ask if my son Matt can come out and play. That's because they saw him mentioned in the back of my books. But they're very disappointed when he comes to the door -- because Matt is in his mid-twenties now! They were reading very old books! Matt is a musician, composer, and sound designer. You can hear his music at my web site, www.rlstine.com."
"I hope my readers get a chance to see my 4-D movie, R. L. Stine's Haunted Lighthouse. The movie stars Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Lea Thompson, Weird Al, and others. You can find it playing at four parks: SeaWorld San Antonio, SeaWorld San Diego, Busch Gardens Tampa, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Virginia. Watch out -- you might get very wet!"
TO ALL ALIEN HUNTERS . . . TO ALL EARTH PEOPLE EVERYWHERE . . . A dangerous group of aliens is planning an Earth invasion sometime in the next week.
REMEMBER: NOT ALL ALIENS ARE THE SAME. This group is warlike and has no regard for human life. Their most likely plan of attack: to take over human bodies.
When the aliens come to your area, you will see clues. WATCH FOR THE FOLLOWING SIGNS:
I REPEAT: ALIENS WILL BE INVADING THE EARTH SOMETIME IN THE COMING WEEK. WE DON'T KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THEY WILL LAND. WATCH FOR THE SIGNS. IF YOU SEE THEM, CONTACT SOMEONE AT THE WORLD ALIEN ALLIANCE IMMEDIATELY.
Signed, Zandor
“Ben! Breakfast is ready!”
Mom's voice broke through my trance. I was sitting at my computer before school, reading a notice that had just appeared in one of my favorite chat rooms.
“Hurry up, honey!” Mom called. “You'll be late for school!”
I glanced at the message on the screen one last time. Zandor. What a wacko, I thought, switching off the computer.
My name is Ben Shipley. Why was I checking out this weird chat room? Well, you might say I'm a little obsessed. As long as I could remember, I wanted to meet an alien.
I don't think that is so weird, really, considering where my family lives'Bitter Lake, New Mexico. It's a small town near Roswell. There's a big military base in Roswell. Some of the kids atschool have parents who work there.
A lot of people say that aliens once landed in Roswell. I believe it.
Still, some people give us alien hunters a bad name. Like Zandor, the wacko in the chat room. “Spontaneous amphibian replication”? Like, all of a sudden there will be salamanders everywhere? Puh-leeze.
I grabbed my backpack and went downstairs for breakfast. Mom passed me on the stairs. She planted a kiss on my forehead.
“Good morning, sweetie,” she cooed.
“Morning, Mom,” I said, wiping her kiss off my forehead. She trotted upstairs to her room.
I love my mom, but sometimes I'm just not in the mood for her lovey-dovey stuff. She was always hugging me and my brother, Will, and telling us how much she loved us. Ecch.
In the kitchen, Dad and Will were sitting at the table, eating cereal. Biscuit, our dog, was gnawing on something under Will's chair.
“Good morning, Ben,” Dad said, glancing up from his coffee. Dad is stocky, bald, and wears gold-rimmed glasses. “Sleep well?”
I nodded.
“Look, Ben!” Will yanked something out of Biscuit's mouth.
It was an old troll doll with a goofy face and long blue hair, covered with dirt and dog drool. Biscuit had dug it up in the backyard.
Will waved the doll in my face. “Look!” he cried again. “This must be one of their babies. It's proof! Living proof, I tell you!”
Will cackled and waved the doll in the air. Biscuit, a shaggy little mutt with white and gray fur, whined, refusing to take her eyes off it.
“Biscuit wants her doll back,” I told him. “Give it back to her.”
Will made a weird face, flaring his nostrils and popping his blue eyes wide open. “They're in our skies!” he shouted. “They're everywhere! The aliens are coming! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
He ran out of the kitchen, laughing like a maniac. Biscuit scampered after him, still watching the doll.
“Dad, tell him to stop making fun of me,” I said.
Dad frowned at me. “Ben, you know how I feel about that UFO silliness.”
I sighed and shoved a spoonful of cereal into my mouth. I knew very well how Mom and Dad felt about my interest in aliens.
They didn't like it. They thought it was unhealthy and a waste of time.
But I didn't care. I knew I wasn't crazy.
I had proof that aliens had been here. Real proof. I'd found it just the day before.But I didn't want to tell Will about it. Or my parents.
Will made fun of me enough already. I knew he'd never take me seriously.
I couldn't tell my parents about it, either. Every time they caught me on the computer chatting with other believers, they threatened to take the computer away from me.
So I tried to hide my obsession from them. They wouldn't have been too happy to hear about what I'd found.
Dad pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. “Well, I've got to get to work,” he said. He had an office in town, selling commercial real estate. Mom worked with him part time.
He mussed my already messy brown hair. “Have a good day at school, Ben.”
“Thanks, Dad.” He walked to the foot of the stairs and called up to my mother. “Honey! I'm leaving!”
Biscuit trotted back into the kitchen with the troll doll in her mouth. She stopped and dropped it at my feet.
“Thanks, girl,” I said, patting her. I picked up the doll and stared at it. Biscuit scampered away.
Will bounded into the room and grabbed the box of cereal.
“Checking the doll for alien markings?” he teased. He reached into the box of cereal, pulled out a handful of sweet pink O's, and stuffed them into his mouth.
“At least I don't eat like a monkey,” I shot back.
“Ha ha,” he fake-laughed, spitting half-chewed cereal on the table.
We were only one year apart. He was in sixth grade, I was in seventh. But we never got along very well. We were just different from each other. The Nightmare Room #12: Visitors. Copyright © by R.L. Stine. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.Anonymous
Posted February 12, 2013
I kinda think this book is lame im sorry i wish it was scary
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Posted February 10, 2013
I absoloutly love this book!I would NEVER recemend this book to someone who is already afraid of school.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.6882716
Posted March 24, 2011
I am ,sadly, the first to write a review for this book. But looking aside that this is a very good, empisis on good, book. There is a little bit of mystery and its a kinda scary story. There is a kinda OH, now I get it twist. There is a mystery that will be solved but will you figure it out first? Well to finish this I recommend this book to anyone who will read it.
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Posted July 9, 2012
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted January 16, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
There's something lurking in the halls of Wilton Middle School. Something with fur . . . and claws . . . and long, sharp teeth. Something absolutely terrifying.
And it doesn't like new kids.