R.L. STINE BOOK OF THE WEEK: Give Yourself Goosebumps: Escape From the Carnival of Horrors

READER BEWARE...YOU CHOOSE THE SCARE!

CHOOSE FROM OVER 20 DIFFERENT SCARY ENDINGS!

From the back cover:

TAKE A RIDE IF YOU DARE...

Late one night you and your friends visit the old fairgrounds. They're putting up rides and booths for the annual carnival. But this year things look really different. Really odd. Really scary.

The place is lit up by a hundred fiery torches. And spooky music is coming from the main tent. Then you meet Big Al, the creepy carnival manager. He's invited you to test some of the rides.

Will you brave the terrifying Supersonic Space Coaster? Risk the horrors of the Reptile Petting Zoo? Slice through the oily waters of Booger Bog? Or confront the evil Snake Lady?

The choice is yours in this scary Goosebumps adventure that's packed with over 20 spooky endings!

My thoughts:

Give Yourself Goosebumps is Stine's variation on Choose Your Own Adventure books. This is the only one I've ever read. When I first started reading it, I was having so much fun I wondered why I never read more of them as a child. After my third trip through the book I realized why.

Give Yourself Goosebumps books are like a video game that you're not good at. It's fun at first, but when you keep losing it becomes frustrating. I had fun for awhile but when I kept trying to make it to a happy ending and failing, I got frustrated and gave up.

Plus I'm not much of a gamer either. And if I play a game I would rather not do it by reading a book. If I want to read, I want to read a whole book, not five pages until I reach an ending.

But I like how if you read other Goosebumps books, it helps you in this one. If you know the words to bring Slappy to life, it could help you, or if you know which slide is the Slide of Doom. Monster Blood also makes an appearance as a prize from the midway.

I'll give Escape From the Carnival of Horrors a 3 because I had fun while my first trip through the book lasted.

Rating: 3/5

PG gore: You reach out slowly and touch the red card.

To your amazement a 3-D heart magically appears and rises from the flat surface. Then it starts to beat! Tha-dump, tha-dump. It must be some fancy optical illusion. You lean closer to figure out the trick.

"Yowwwww!" you screech and jerk back to avoid the warm red liquid that nearly squirts in your eye. Is it blood? It looks like blood.

Next week: Goosebumps: Welcome to Dead House