I don't know, but I hope there is someone who writes better. I read several of them to my kids when they were young, and they finally called it quits. They couldn;t stop giggling at the horrible dialogue.
This probably won't help you, but I used to read these series called 'De Griezelbus' by Paul van Loon which is (as you can probably guess) Dutch. I had lots of nightmares, so I guess it was scary enough.
Certainly not. It's just that most are not nearly as famous. I don't read much horror, so I can't think of any at the moment, but I know they are out there.
Well, there's this really good series called Harry Potter. Seriously though, the only other series that is sort of like Goosebumps that I remember reading as a kid is Animorphs by K.A. Applegate. Maybe there's a need for another good horror series for elementary-age readers since Stine seems to be the only one out there with stuff that is distinctly horror.
I was going to reply, "In its levels of crappiness? No", but Cog already beat me to it. I don't know of any other horror writer for children, although IMO RL Stine could hardly be called a horror writer, he's so awful. Maybe it's a genre that's just not suitable for the younger ones, because scaling it back for kids isn't really horror?
I agree that his writing isn't that 'hard' to do, but he really knows how to get his target audience. He could write the most beautifully and well-constructed plots out there, but if children couldn't hang on to it for five seconds, he'd be a failure in his field. Goosebumps was my gateway to reading, which led to a lot of awesome things in my life. As a grown up, I see other little kids reading the same Goosebumps books today that I read 10+ years ago, and that's awesome. And R.L. Stine may not be the best at dialogue, but he had some really cool ideas. I think his style of writing is perfect to have fun with a lot of just off-the-wall ideas that don't have to be taken too seriously. One of his latest books is the Little Shop of Hamsters. Of course, whatever plot this may hold would fail if the author attempted to write it as something to win awards, but it could still be a fun story there nonetheless.
I agree with JCKey on this one. While Stine may not be the best author out there, he knows what he's doing. The fact that children are still reading Goosebumps is evidence for that. I used to read these books a lot when I was a kid. The series was really what got me interested in reading, and I hope it has the same effect on other kids. As for the original question: Stine is the only children's horror writer I know. If there are any others out there, they are clearly all overshadowed by Stine.
While his writing isn't the best quality I think its alot of fun. I love his ideas, I enjoy the stories he presents and at the end of the book I am almost always loving the twist. I didn't read him when I was real young. I actually bought a few of his books at a garage sale and ended up laying dormant on my shelves collecting dust. Then in like eigth grade I had nothing to read and decided to read them and loved them. Even today I will sometimes pick one up and enjoy it. As for similar authors I can't think of one.
I totally grew up on Goosebumps. I think I had the collection before I grew too old for them. Not brilliant, nor really that scary, but as a kid I remember them being really cool. I started reading them at around the same time I learned to read so...that's their age group really. I never read any other author's work at that time I can remember though. It was just Goosebumps that I remember.
Same here Flamingo. I remember them so well.. but here there are many great children's authors. I never thought Goosebumps to be creepy, but they were fun to read.
I remember Goosebumps too, and I read those as a kid..... grew out of them by the age of about 7-8, which is when I read The Catcher in the Rye (yes, at 8 years old!) and delved into deeper writing.
I adore R.L Stine, and read all of his books as a child. Looking back, I guess sometimes the writing was poor in parts, but he enthralled and entertained me and millions of other kids, which essentially, is the most important thing for a children's writer to do in the first place. Everything else can follow. I believe he also is the reason why I got so into horror, and I thank him eternally for that. Some horror/horrorish kid's fiction: Darren Shan - Vampira and Demonata series (Darren Shan) Animorphs The Devil's Toenail (Sally prue) The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman The Park In The Dark Hmm, that's all I can think of that I know. However, just look up 'Children's horror books' on google and you'll find about a million horror books for kids of all ages. However, in my opinion, R.L Stine simply has the BEST imagination, and I loved him (Still do, really)
Point horror rocked! No I read all of the point horror as a kid, they were well better than goosebumps. Loved em all........ahhhhh good times, good times.
I liked the RL Stine Choose Your Own Adventure books. Those were fun to flip through and try to take every path possible.
Oohh! Were those the ones in second person? I had one called 'Carnival Of Horrors' which had multiple paths and endings. That was the first book I read in 2nd person, (and last, I think!) so it was really educational writing-wise.
Goosebumps used to scare me when I was little. I think there was one about a dad who was growing a plant monster in the basement, and I refused to go down into our basement alone for about 4 months. The writing wasn't fantastic but I was ALWAYS entertained by his books. I have a few still. They were quick to read and always a good, fun story. I have a short attention span when it comes to books; I need a quick, short story that hooks you in and moves. When I was younger these certainly fit the bill. Other series that were scary.... Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, I, II and III. Those were absolutely terrifying and had these really horrible illustrations that used to give me nightmares. Some of the stories are kind of goofy but others are very, very scary when you are young. I also thought A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket was BRILLIANT though not exactly horror.
That was one of the books that I read repeatedly. It's the one that turns people into plants right? Creepy. Kind of dumb now, but really cool back when I was little.
^ I used to love that one as an episode on TV. The part where the kids almost get caught by their dad used to set me on edge, lol.
I only just remembered! Ages ago I sent a message to R.L Stine telling him that he was the one who inspired me as a kid to write horror, and how I still write it now because of his books. I got a genuine reply (I just dug this out from way back in my emails), not just an all-purpose email: I enjoyed your note very much. It makes me feel good that I have been such a bad influence on you that you want to be a horror writer. Good luck in school-- and with your writing! Scary Best Wishes, R.L. Stine I'm pretty sure it was him, because his email address seemed personal. Also, I got like 4 auto-emails along with it, where i'd clicked 'send' too many times. LOL. I think it's really nice that he bothered to reply to me...not alot of big authors would.
