As a kid, I was pretty lucky to attend a school that had a
great library. Here in the Philippines, that is already a big deal, especially
in public schools. Our school Esteban Abada Elementary School had a foreign
benefactor who would often donate books to our library.
I grew up reading about a giant dog, a family of bears who
talk, and myths from all around the world, plus plenty of books by Adarna
Publications that teaches moral lessons Pinoy style.
When I was around 10, I enjoyed this horror series for
children made by R.L. Stine. But now if I think about it, I don't know how that
could have been classified as book that can be borrowed by 8-year-olds. Some
stories in the Goosebumps series were a bit of
hair-in-the-back-of-your-neck-and-arms-raising worthy.
Goosebumps is a collection of stories about kids coming
face to face with real life monster horrors from werewolves, ghost, and Abominable
snowmen, to cursed Halloween masks and a dummy coming to life. There is even a
camera that kills people with only a snap of a picture. In these stories, the
kids (who are always the protagonist) would step up and beat them, but it
always end with a surprising twist.
One of my favorite stories is about Slappy, the
ventriloquist dummy that came to life. He often messed with his owner (usually
a kid), and the blame for all the troubles the dummy made would usually fall to
the owner. I also loved One Day At Horrorland, where the monsters were real and
the rides were a killer. The staff was dressed up as monsters, but in truth, it
was their real skin. The only way to destroy them is to pinch them.
The series was so popular then it even had its own TV show
in the US, which I hadn't been able to watch considering we didn’t have cable
then.
R.L. Stine is an amazing horror writer. He also had another
series about a certain street where weird and horrifying things happen. He also
writes adult horrors.
The amazing thing is, Goosebumps will have a feature movie
this month, featuring Jack Black as R.L. Stine. The story is about Zack Cooper
(Dylan Minnette) moving to a small town and meeting Hannah, his new neighbor.
He finds out that Hannah's father is R.L. Stine himself, the writer of the
famous Goosebumps series. R.L. (Black) keeps all the monsters in his stories
locked up in his which Zack accidentally releases.
Meet the monsters on this coming Oct. 21 at cinemas near
you.
(That last bit sounded a lot like a promotion, doesn’t it?
Heh. ~ Zee)
~ Djan
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