Haunted Library (Goosebumps)
THRILLOGY: A 3 MINI-BOOK COLLECTION!
The Haunted Library Goosebumps Thrillogy (1996)
GOT U COVERED 📗
Author: R.L Stine
Published: 1996
Series: Goosebumps: The Haunted Library
Tagline: Reading is a Scream!
Description: A miniature Goosebumps book in collaboration with Hershey’s .
In 1996 Goosebumps partnered with Hershey's, Frito-Lay, and Pepsi-Cola for an ultra-rare promotional 3 mini-book set. The set was titled, Goosebumps Haunted Library, and individual books: Bad Dog, Don’t Make Me Laugh, and The Halloween Game were available for collection when Hershey’s, Frito-Lay, and Pepsi-associated products were purchased. Scholastic signed a $40 million promotional deal with PepsiCo to promote the book series across several divisions.
“Stine has written three original Goosebumps mini-books that will only be available via the promotion. They will be advertising-free, and the storylines won’t feature any PepsiCo products. One will be inserted inside Frito-Lay products. The other two will be available via mail-in coupon offers from soft-drink products and through newspaper inserts from Pepsi’s marketing partner Hershey.
The promotional program is the most extensive and aggressive ever done at the consumer retail level by Scholastic, which figures to distribute over 32 million Goosebumps booklets, according to Mary Sadeghy, director of marketing for Scholastic Productions.
‘Our goal is to take a kids holiday like Halloween, and use that opportunity to communicate literacy and get kids excited about reading,’ says Sadeghy.” - Kidscreen Article, written by Ed Kirchdoerffer (August 1, 1996)
According to a 1996 Tampa Bay Times article, it caused a little uproar because some consumer advocates felt it encouraged kids to purchase more junk food to get their hands on these books.
I grew up in South Africa, so this was not a collector’s item I ever encountered or had available access to. I only found out about it recently. So you know I had to read them immediately (FOMO almost two decades too late😅) for spooky season. After all, it was marketed as a Halloween release. You can read The Haunted Library Collection here
Let’s see whether these promotional stories are a bag of treats or a collection of tricks.
Bad Dog:
Goosebumps Bad Dog (The Haunted Library Thrillogy) Cover
This book is about a mangy, disgruntled dog who terrorizes two siblings as they go to school. He stalks them in the graveyard, at home, and school. Each time, he growls at them menacingly and is ready to attack. As the encounters continue between the dog and siblings, two other children are also at the scene, however, they don’t do much to help the characters. Fed up, the kids walk the dog to the nearby town to get rid of him. But he returns and continues to bark at them. Eventually, we discover that the dog is constantly barking at them because the kids are ghosts👻. The big reveal is that they’ve been dead all this time.
I liked this story, mainly due to how the dog was described in behavior and appearance. Ferocious dogs can be scary and intimidating, so my imagination went wild with how this dog could look. I foresaw the twist, but had I been a kid when I read this, I would’ve been caught off guard. This book also predates The Sixth Sense so I guess we can see where M. Night got his inspiration from…just kidding.
Out of the thrillogy, I’d say this is the strongest entry. I was enthralled by the story and wanted to know what the resolution was.
Don’t Make Me Laugh:
Goosebumps Don't Make Me Laugh (The Haunted Library Thrillogy) Cover
This book is about two boys who get a major kick out of tickling their classmates. They think of their tickling as a hobby and refer to themselves as “The Laugh Police”. One day, they are abducted by aliens 🛸 and forced to make the aliens of this planet laugh. The planet’s aliens have not laughed in a long time so it’s up to them to bring laughter back to the alien nation. If not, they will never be able to return home.
The ridiculousness of this book is what made me laugh. It’s R.L. Stine’s more humorous entry within the thrillogy. It’s a silly plot with even more sillier stakes and outcomes. However, the ending was a little bit shocking. Luckily these aren’t characters we are expected to like all that much. So their fate could be seen as well deserved.
I guess you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
The Halloween Game:
Goosebumps The Halloween Game (The Haunted Library Thrillogy) Cover
This book is about three kids: Robby, Krista, and Carl, who play a game set up by a boy called Miles. They need to find Miles’ Aunt Freeda’s house so they can collect candy that she’s hidden all over it. However, on their way, they encounter three terrors that eliminate them one by one.
It’s then revealed that this was all a computer game 🎮 and a demo trying to be sold to executives.
I didn’t enjoy this story, which was disappointing, especially since it’s a Halloween-centred story. It does capture some essence of Halloween with the trick-or-treating and the Halloween costume choices. Also reading the words “64-bit” and “CD-ROM” was the actual treat for my 90s nostalgia. However, this is the weakest entry out of the three and was more of a trick than a treat.
Overall, I liked two out of the three stories given in this collection. It was a fun, goofy reading experience that I know I would have thoroughly enjoyed had I read these as a child. My favorite was definitely Bad Dog, so check that one out for sure.
I’d grade this book a C+
Have you read The Haunted Library Thrillogy? Better yet, do you own copies of this rare collector’s item? Share you thoughts and comments below
