Second Book Review - Kaelie C.

Goosebumps: Attack of the Jack-O-Lanterns Book Review

Introduction:

            Goosebumps: Attack of the Jack-O-Lanterns is one of many books in the R.L Stine series that involves mystery, crazy twists, and science fiction. Because this book is mainly about friendship, revenge, and jack-o-lanterns, it would be a great read for the fall season. Students, at the appropriate age level, can gain satisfaction through literature and a sense of adventure. Even with the exciting adventure and mystery, the story also includes social aspects, especially with friendship. While teaming up, Drew and Walker experience many crazy twists and scary situations throughout the story.

Summary:

            The Goosebumps book series encompasses many different mystery, science fiction, and fantasy aspects. In Goosebumps: Attack of the Jack-O-Lanterns, the main character named Drew Brockman gets revenge on the other kids for a practical joke played on them last Halloween. Drew and her best friend, named Walker, put pumpkins on their heads to go scare the jokesters. All of the sudden, the pumpkins seem scarier and actually turn into monsters that shoot fire and hiss. Drew and Walker began to wonder if this has to do with two other friends, Shane and Shauna. Eventually, they find out that it was Shane and Shauna scaring the jokesters and that they are aliens. The story ends with Drew seeing if Shane and Shauna are joking about eating humans.

Critical Thinking:

Friendship and Bullying

            In the beginning of the story, the reader is introduced to Drew and Walker who had a practical joke played on them during Halloween. Since they are such close friends, they decide to get their revenge on the jokesters by scaring them with pumpkin heads. Ultimately, with the help of Shane and Shauna, they were able to really scare the kids. Since this book is appropriate for middle school and late-elementary ages, the reader can gain a sense that he or she is not the only one getting singled out. The reader is eager to learn what happens because the book is written in Drew’s perspective, especially since she wants revenge. By using pumpkin heads to scare the jokesters, a young reader will gain satisfaction and understanding. Through the dialogue, friendship is made to seem important and meaningful. The alien fantasy twist at the end of the book helps to completely establish adventure and mystery for the reader. This final point of the story can encourage readers to pick up and read more Goosebumps series books.

Book Format

            Goosebumps: Attack of the Jack-O-Lanterns is one of many books in the series and is an example of how formatting can affect the reader. In this book, chapters are very short and packed full of action and twists. For instance, chapter 27 summarizes the climax where Tabby and Lee (the jokesters) are terrified and run away in fear. The chapter ends with the lines: “’Please –!’ I begged. ‘Please – no!’”; these chapter-ending lines give the reader immense excitement and definitely peaks his/her curiosity about the next chapter. Even though this book is completely science fiction and fantasy, it really helps the reader keep reading until the very end of the story. The font is also friendly to younger readers, especially with the italicization to describe important story aspects. Also, having chapters short helps to give readers satisfaction and motivates him or her to finish. At the appropriate age level, readers could compete to finish the book or discuss among each other what happens in each chapter. The book covers, both front and back, seem to have many advertisements for other Goosebumps products such as with trading cards, the fan club, and television shows.

Possible Teaching Moments/Class Activities

            Since this book series includes advertisements and attention drawn towards younger ages, they would be a great introduction for students to media and social relationships. Having situations in the book involving friendship and bullying helps readers to learn what is appropriate language and behavior. If a teacher wants to use this book, I think it would be great if he or she had the students first analyze the book covers and advertisements and discuss what it means to them. Then at the end of the book, the teacher could have students discuss if getting revenge is appropriate or not in different situations. It would be great to use this book during the late October month since it would get them thinking about Halloween, friendship, and having fun. Also, this might be a good bridging tool to use; if a teacher is trying to teach space or astronomy subjects, the aliens at the end could expand students’ curiosities. This book could also be used as a comparison book; a teacher could use this book to compare against a non-fiction book. Students could look at differences in perspective, tone, plot, and characters.

Appropriate Age/Grade Level

            The Goosebumps series definitely attracts many different type s of readers. I think the most interested type of reader would be a young age/grade level. Specifically, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade would be appropriate grade levels for this book series. In these years, students still embrace a sense of adventure and fantasy. Their comprehension skills are further developing in this period, but being a kid is also important. At this developmental stage, children are starting to see value and meaning with friendship and doing things together. Friendships begin to be taken more seriously so if a student were to read Goosebumps: Attack of the Jack-O-Lanterns, this would be further supported and implemented. Even with the outrageous fiction aspects of aliens and pumpkin-head monsters, students can still learn to further embrace friendship. This book series would probably be a good bridge to more complicated fiction or non-fiction such as Lord of the Rings. More complicated books introduce extensive vocabulary and  plot, which can further develop in seventh through twelfth grades.

Holidays as Fantasy

            Goosebumps: Attack of the Jack-O-Lanterns poses a huge issue: whether holidays are too fantastical. Just from looking at the book covers, one will know that this book focuses on Halloween and how Halloween can ‘go wrong’. Obviously, this book would be a good tool during the fall season, but it seems to support that Halloween is fantasy and science fiction. The aliens being the pumpkin-headed monsters ties in fantasy with science fiction. This perspective can give readers a false perspective on holidays, especially Halloween. Some readers might be scared by this story while others thoroughly enjoy the book and get excited about Halloween. While going through all the different Goosebumps series books, I noticed that they all have exotic science fiction/mystery plots. This can be problematic, especially for readers that take things very literally.

Final Thoughts

            This Goosebumps book was a great, exciting read overall. I really enjoyed the outrageous fantasy and science fiction aspects. This book definitely peaked my curiosity and would be awesome to read during the fall. At the end of the book, I was disappointed to see that their friends, Shane and Shauna, were aliens and they helped the main characters with their plan. Other Goosebumps books that I have read were very exciting and scary, especially when I was younger. Since there are many crazy twists and science fiction, there can be many ways to incorporate this series, especially Goosebumps: Attack of the Jack-O-Lanterns, in the classroom. R.L. Stine is a talented science fiction and mystery author and would be a great author to choose from for fourth through sixth grade levels. The many aspects and issues that this book introduces should definitely be considered when choosing this book.

Citation:

Stine, R.L. (1996). Goosebumps: Attack of the Jack-O-Lanterns. New York: Scholastic, Inc.