It was a question any 12-year-old could answer.
“R.L. Stine has been sending chills down children’s spines since 1992 with this book series,” host Alex Trebek asked on a recent “Jeopardy!” show.
Yet the three contestants stared blankly until the “time’s up” buzzer sounded.
“What is `Goosebumps’?” answered Trebek in his sorry-you-missed-it tone.
Were those contestants preteens (or their parents), however, they surely would have spouted the answer before Trebek could say “Stine” because scores of kids between the ages of 8 and 12, some even younger, are Goosebumpsmaniacs.
Scholastic Inc., “Goosebumps’ ” publisher, sells almost 4 million copies per month, but it’s not only humor-laced horror books these young devotees are crazy about. Goosebumps also means America’s No. 1 children’s television series (4:30 p.m. Fridays until July 13, when it will air at 9:30 a.m. Saturdays on WFLD-Ch. 32), prime-time TV specials, a World Wide Web site and oodles of stuff–board games, backpacks, boxer shorts and more.
“It’s a brand name now,” says Diane Roback, children’s book editor for Publishers Weekly.
Stine, talking from his Manhattan apartment where he writes a new Goosebumps tale each month, understands the appeal. “When kids really like something, they don’t just want to read it, they want it to be part of their lives,” he says.
The bespectacled Stine, 52, has become an unlikely preteen idol. He’s America’s best-selling author, besting the likes of John Grisham, Danielle Steel and Stephen King. Both boys and girls worship him with an intensity usually reserved for musicians, movie stars and athletes.
“It’s so strange,” says Stine, on a break from writing Goosebumps No. 56. “Girls cry when they meet me. I’m this old guy, and they’re shaking all over.”
Dawn Gorchow, the children’s supervisor at Barnes & Noble’s Deerfield store, gets “at least three phone calls a night” from horror-loving youngsters awaiting Stine’s latest creepy-crawly tome. The store used to call fans when new titles arrived. But the list grew to more than 400 children. “We couldn’t keep up with the calls,” Gorchow says.
Kids love “Goosebumps” “because they’re the experts on it. They know more about it than their parents do,” Gorchow says. “It’s become something that they own.”
The TV anthology series premiered last November and is the most popular kids’ show on the air, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Execuive producer Deborah Forte receives lots of fan mail from kids, many of whom say they want to star in or write a “Goosebumps” episode. “I think they feel it’s theirs,” she says.
“Goosebumps” fans use the word “awesome” a lot, they get breathless when recapping plot lines, and they talk in numbers.
Take Keith Smith, 10. He owns almost every Goosebumps published and gets “really ticked off” if he misses a TV episode. When he tells one adult that “No. 43 and No. 39 are the coolest ones I’ve read,” he must stop and translate. “That’s `The Beast From the East’ and `How I Got My Shrunken Head.’ “
During a chat with Smith and some schoolmates at Brookfield’s Lincoln Elementary School, their intense devotion becomes apparent. They debate whether No. 42, “Egg Monsters From Mars,” is “creepy” or “boring,” extol the “Welcome to Camp Nightmare” TV episode and recount in detail their first Goosebumps.
In mid-conversation, Smith rises from his desk and walks zombie-like to a bookshelf. “I knew one was in here. I felt it,” he says, grabbing a book. “It’s No. 20, `The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight.’ “
The series also boasts many adult fans, some who have never read more than a few sentences of a “Goosebumps” novel or watched more than a few minutes of the show. They have their own reasons for liking it.
Diana Kurtz of Round Lake Beach had reservations when her 11-year-old son Bobby became interested. “At first I had my `mom guard’ up,” says Kurtz. But not only has he completed the 45-book series, “they’ve caught his interest in reading, period.”
“Goosebumps” offers what Stine calls “safe scares,” where nobody gets hurt or killed and all ends happily. But Sheila Polk, a 3rd-grade teacher at Peabody Elementary School on the city’s West Side, says the often grotesque books don’t give her students, who live in violent surroundings, enough of an escape.
“With `Goosebumps,’ it’s gory,” says Polk, who uses the books as a springboard to “a better type of literature. Death and goriness are something they have in their lives. . . . I think books should pull you away from your present environment. `Goosebumps’ doesn’t do that.”
If that’s true, Peabody student Harry Pena, 12, doesn’t mind. His favorite TV show is–surprise–“Goosebumps.”
“When you watch it and turn off all the lights, you feel like something is going to come out and get you!” he says.
A merchandisers’ delight
Like many youngsters, Pena also covets “Goosebumps” paraphernalia.
“When you like (something) so much, you want all the stuff,” he says. “I have a bookmark, a video, a T-shirt. And I want a hat.”
Pena and others soon can own scores of new Goosebumps products. Sneakers, life jackets, aprons, two videos and a sure to be ballyhooed CD-ROM from Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks are just some of the upcoming items. There also has been talk about a possible prime-time series and a feature-length film.
With all its success, Goosebumps naturally has spawned wannabes. ABC has a new live-action children’s horror show, “Bone Chillers,” slated for its fall Saturday morning lineup. There are book series, such as Bone Chillers and Fright Time, that mimic Goosebumps down to their ooey-gooey covers. There’s even a knockoff book series for 1st- and 2nd-graders called Scaredy Cats. And some bookstores carry the spoof “Gooflumps,” by R.U. Slime.
Although Goosebumps is hotter than a monster’s breath, a day may come when it’s colder than a mummy’s tomb. Some say that day is not far off.
Lise Schleicher, children’s department supervisor at Barnes & Noble’s Schaumburg store, says she has seen signs that interest is waning. Although sales remain high, “I don’t think they’re blowing out the door as fast,” she says. Additionally, interest is growing among younger kids–the kiss of death for any trend.
“I had a mom ask me today if we had beginning reader Goosebumps. She had a 4-year-old.”
Others say the Fall of the House of Goosebumps is several years off.
“I don’t think we’re going to be walking into a bookstore and not seeing a Goosebumps title any time soon,” Publishers Weekly’s Roback says.
Stine realizes Goosebumps’ popularity ultimately will dwindle. But the man who sells almost 4 million books a month puts the issue in perspective.
“Would I keep going for what, half a million each month? Sure. This is unbelievable.”
SOMETHING TO SCARE PARENTS
Lest anyone doubt how huge “Goosebumps” has become, here is a list of related products hitting the market between now and Christmas:
Available now
Boys’ and girls’ boxer shorts, undershirts and underwear sets
Embroidered baseball hats
Spiral notebooks and folders, memo pads
Costume jewelry
Video: “The Haunted Mask”
T-shirts and sweatshirts
Puzzles
Board games (2)
Beach and bath towels
Pillows
Pajamas
Baseball shirts
Posters
Book bags
Stickers
Bedding
Non-LCD hand held and tabletop electronic games
Quiz Wiz cartridges
Flashlights with sound
Diaries
Wallet cards
Jean tattoos
Bookmarks
Party goods
Sneakers
Available July
Lunch kits
Available August
Sleeping bags
Books on audiotape
Life jackets
Latex balloons
Available September
Videos: “Stay Out of the Basement” “A Night in Terror Tower”
Watches/clocks
Holographic cards, trading cards
Temporary tattoos
More stickers
Handbags
Raincoats
Wallets
Aprons
Available in the fall
Mylar balloons
Latex-covered character head balls
Novelty toys
More games
Available Halloween
Halloween costumes
“Monsterization” kits
Trick-or-treat bags
Cards, stationery, gift wrap
More party goods
Mask-making kit
Available Christmas
CD-ROM
More toys
Hand-held LCD games
Walkie-talkies
Masks with speaker boxes
Radios
Novelty toys
Board game
Card tricks
Puzzle
