Goosebumps is one of the most popular children’s novel series in the horror fiction genre. The first book in the series, entitled Welcome to the Dead House, was published in July 1992. Since then, a total of two hundred and thirty-five (235) books have been published. the book series has been translated into thirty-two languages and more than 400 million books have been sold worldwide. As a result, it was the best-selling series of all time for several years before J. k. rowling’s harry potter.
the american novelist robert lawrence stine, also known by his other pseudonyms: jovial bob stine and eric affabee, or simply r. I Stine, author of the books he characterizes as “scary books that are also funny.” The writer has also written hundreds of other popular horror fiction novels that have led him to be referred to as the “Stephen King of children’s literature.”
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what is goosebumps all about?
Published by Scholastic Publishing, the stories in the Goosebumps book series are written for a 3rd-7th grade reading level and are typically about ordinary kids in extraordinary situations. the themes present in the book are about children who triumph over evil; children who face frightening situations and use their wits and imagination to escape from them. stine gets the ideas for her books from real-life experiences. the author revealed that the haunted mask was inspired by his son’s experience; when he had trouble removing a halloween mask. There are no moral lessons built into the novels, as Stine says his books are strictly for motivational reading.
The plot of goosebumps follows children’s characters (either male or female) who find themselves in terrifying situations. all of the books have similar plot structures, as these frightening situations usually involve monsters and other supernatural elements. however, there are no deaths in any of the stories, and the children in the books never find themselves in situations that are considered too serious.
The terrifying nature of the books nearly got them banned in the US
Between the years 1990 and 1999, and even beyond, books about goosebumps were some of the most controversial. During this time, various individuals and groups attempted to remove or restrict them from US public and school libraries on the grounds that they depicted occult or demonic themes and were too frightening for young people.
according to the american library association, the book series was ranked 15th on their list of the 100 most frequently questioned books in the 90s. it was challenged more than the sex of madonna and the anarchist cookbook among others controversial books. book challenges dipped in the 2000s, but it still made the list, ranking 94th.
How many Goosebumps book series are there in all?
after the original Goosebumps series which had sixty-two books published under the title from 1992 to 1997, r. I stine began writing several spin-off series. some publications have stated that she published a total of seven series, excluding those that were not popular. others have included every book series she published, including those that have only one book in the series.
The top seven series that give you goosebumps include:
- goosebumps (1992-1997) – sixty-two books
- stories that give you goosebumps (1994-1997) – six books
- put on goosebumps (1995-2000) – fifty books
- goosebumps presents (1996-1998) – nineteen books
- goosebumps series 2000 (1998-2000) – twenty-six books
- goosebumps horrorland (2008-2012) – twenty-five books
- goosebumps most wanted (2012-2016) – fourteen books
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Other series that are not very popular or have only one book in the series include:
- Goosebumps Monsters Editions (1995-1997) – n/a
- Goosebumps Haunted Library (1996) – n/a
- autobiographies goosebumps (1997-1998) – two books
- goosebumps triple header (1997-1998) – n/a
- goosebumps graphix (2006-2015) – four books
- goosebumps slappyworld (2017- present) – sixteen books
- several goosebumps books – n/a
Adaptations To Screen
television
In 1995, a few years after the release of the first book on Goosebumps, a television anthology series based on the series was produced in Canada. protocol entertainment collaborated with scholastic publishing’s sister company, scholastic entertainment, to produce the show which ran for four seasons and aired on the fox network in more than 100 countries.
The first season of goosebumps had 19 episodes and ran from October 27, 1995 to May 17, 1996. The second season ran from August 10, 1996 to July 20, 1997 and It had 25 episodes. there were 22 episodes in the penultimate season which aired from September 6, 1997 to May 16, 1998, before only 8 episodes were produced for the fourth and final season of the TV series which aired from 14 from September 1998 to November 16, 1998.
In 2020, Scholastic Entertainment, Sony Pictures Television, and Original Film announced that Scholastic Entertainment, Sony Pictures Television, and Original Film were working on a new live-action television series. however, no specific release date was provided as to when the show would be released.
movie
Prior to the release of the first Goosebumps film in 2015, there was an attempt to produce one in 1998. Fox Family Films explored the option but because they could not settle on a script they liked or which book to adapt, they decided to shelf their plans. About ten years later, Columbia Pictures acquired rights to the project.
Facing the same challenges Fox experienced with the script, the producers opted to make a fake biopic that saw R. yo stine writes a book and all the monsters in it become real. Actor Jack Black was cast to play a fictionalized version of Stine, while director Rob Letterman was brought in to bring the script to life. The story saw all the monsters from the Goosebumps franchise escape from Stine’s books, forcing him to team up with his teenage neighbor to save the town from him after the monsters start wreaking havoc in the real world. the first goosebumps movie was subsequently released on October 16, 2015 to rave reviews. enjoyed commercial success, grossing $158 million against a budget of $84 million.
Unsurprisingly, a stand-alone sequel to the first was immediately commissioned. Development of the film began in September 2015 and it was announced that none of the actors from the first film would be returning except for Jack Black. The plot follows two children who unknowingly open an unpublished Goosebumps manuscript titled Haunted Halloween to accidentally unleash monsters from the Goosebumps franchise on their town. The monsters continue to cause a wave of destruction on Halloween night. Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween was later released on October 12, 2018 to mixed reviews from critics. it went on to gross $93.3 million (worldwide) against a production budget of $35 million.
video games
Seven action-adventure video games based on the Goosebumps series of books have been released. some of the games have been based on books of the same name, while others have served as a sequel or prequel to a book.
- goosebumps: escape from horrorland (1996): Released in 1996 for PC, this is the first video game in the goosebumps franchise. The game acts as a sequel to the Goosebumps book, A Day in Horrorland. The game was DreamWorks Interactive’s best-selling game at the time and was a finalist for the 1996 Computer Game Developers Conference Outstanding “Best Linear Media Adaptation” award.
- goosebumps: attack of the mutant (1997): based on the book attack of the mutant goosebumps, a children’s pc game was developed and produced by dreamworks interactive and released on 25 September 1997. The game was one of the first games to use cel-shaded animation.
- Goosebumps: Horrorland (2008): Released on October 28, 2008 in North America and on October 16, 2009 in Europe, the video game Goosebumps Horrorland was based on the series of books. of the same name. it was available on nintendo ds, wii and playstation 2 platforms.
- goosebumps: the game (2015): Developed by wayforward technologies and released in 2015 as a prequel to the goosebumps movie, goosebumps: the game is a point-and-draw adventure game. click-enabled gamers must control a boy or girl they can name and go with them on a hair-raising adventure that will see them battle goosebumps-raising monsters escaping from their books.
- Goosebumps: Night of Scares (2015): The first mobile game in the series, Goosebumps: Night of Scares, was released in 2015. The events in the game take place after the film where R.L. Stine is trapped inside a typewriter thanks to Slappy. Players of the game control a young boy named Twist.
- Goosebumps: Horror Town (2018): The second mobile game in the franchise, Goosebumps: Horror Town was released in 2018. Players of the game build their own Goosebumps-inspired town with slappy and various other monsters.
- goosebumps: dead of night (2020): In the summer of 2020, a creepy first-person survival adventure game titled goosebumps dead of night was released for playstation 4, nintendo switch, xbox one and pc. Players can experience three chapters of stealth gameplay with 3D graphics and chilling AI monsters. included additional content not seen on fright night.
Frequently asked questions about the Goosebumps book series
1. What is the first book that gives you goosebumps?
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The first book published in the Goosebumps book series is Welcome to Dead House, which was published in July 1992. The book was published alongside the second and third books in the original Goosebumps series; stay out of the cellar and out of monster blood.
2. which goosebumps book is the longest?
Goosebumps Wanted: The Haunted Mask has the most pages at two hundred and forty (240). However, it has a lower word count than Weird Halloween, the sixteenth book in the Goosebumps book series. weird halloween is over 34,000 words with two hundred fourteen (214) pages, making it the most goosebump-inducing book ever.
3. What are the classic books that give you goosebumps and how many are there?
The original goosebumps books are also known as the classic goosebumps books because they were the first to be published before other spin-offs were released. there are sixty-two of these books, beginning with welcome to the dead house which was published in july 1992 and ending with monstrous blood iv which was published in december 1997.
4. What are the scariest books that give you goosebumps?
There are over fifty books we could list that qualify to be ranked among the scariest in the series. below are 10 that we think will send the shivers down a reader’s spine.
- welcome home dead
- the pursuer
- the girl who cried monster
- the curse at camp cold lake
- a night in the tower of terror
- the haunted mask
- say cheese and die!
- the night of the living doll
- one day in horrorland
- it came from under the sink
5. what is the right age for a child to read a book that gives goosebumps?
According to the author, goosebumps was written at the reading level of 3rd-7th graders (ages 8-12). however, it should be noted that the stories are still very scary and can scare a child.
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