Rereading Goosebumps: Ten/Sixty-Two

I have now read ten out of the original sixty-two Goosebumps books. I thought I’d split these entries into every ten and assess the books out of groups of ten rather than try to rate all sixty-two books at once.

Here they are in the order in which I read them:

Welcome to Dead House (#1)
The Girl Who Cried Monster (#8)
Welcome to Camp Nightmare (#9)
The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (#5)
Let’s Get Invisible (#6)
Night of the Living Dummy (#7)
Stay Out of the Basement (#2)
The Haunted Mask (#11)
How I Learned to Fly (#52)
One Day at Horrorland (#16)

I had two objectives when starting this goal: I wasn’t going to spend any money on a Goosebumps book, and I could read them in any order with the exception of the books that are part of a series (like Monster Blood, Monster Blood II, etc.).

As such, you can tell that I’ve been primarily searching for the earlier books in the series. The random How I Learned to Fly, which comes at number fifty-two in the series, was discovered at my school’s library, mislabeled as being at the ATOS reading level of 13 instead of 3 or 4. (This can roughly be translated into American grade level, thus a level 3 book would be appropriate for a reader who has tested with 3rd grade reading ability.)

Recently, my kindergarten students took a reading test and one of my just-turned-6-years-old students tested at level 3.8. They’re an avid reader, unbelievably intelligent, but you wouldn’t be giving them a Goosebumps book yet as the content isn’t appropriate. Apparently I tested at a twelfth-grade level in the fourth grade, but my mother has yet to provide receipts for this claim. I do know that I always tested higher than the other students and was often bored with the books that we were assigned.

Despite that, I was very protective of my Goosebumps and refused to sell them when someone approached me about them at a garage sale. (The audacity.) My mother, who also helped with some of the Scholastic Book Fairs at school, would sneak the latest Goosebumps book under her seat for me to buy later so they wouldn’t run out (not that they did in my conservative small town, where consent forms were required to read, let alone purchase, Goosebumps books back in the 90s).

I have discovered three other Goosebumps books in my school’s library and I’ve snapped all of them up to read before I give them to my students to check out. I’ve noticed that even though they will read books in their range, they go for the small, thin books, rather than the more substantial chapter books. I’m hoping Goosebumps and other books may help change that. I overheard another teacher talking about how one of her students was reading Goosebumps in Korean, and she suggested that he read one in English as well.

My top two books of the ten I’ve read are The Haunted Mask #11 and One Day at Horrorland #16. They were both entertaining with good transitions and didn’t feel overwrought or with unnecessarily dramatic chapter-ending cliff-hangers like some of the other books. In third place, I’d put either The Girl Who Cried Monster #8 or Welcome to Dead House #1.

How I Learned to Fly #52 was a snooze-fest. The characters were incredibly unlikeable and the book wasn’t scary at all. It almost felt like someone else was telling Stine what he should write about, rather than letting him write. Yes, it stuck out that much to me, and it makes me worry about the latter books of the sixty-two–are they all going to feel this way?

I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to read all sixty-two books this year. I’m already quite behind, and I would like to read things other than Goosebumps (believe it or not). I’d have to average about two books a week for the rest of the year, unless I can spend a few weekends speed-running some Goosebumps.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to read all sixty-two without having to purchase any.

What’s your favorite Goosebumps book?