Goosebumps #1: Most Wanted: Planet of the Lawn Gnomes

by R.L. Stine (author)

gbp prices: Save £1.00
£3.99; RRP: £4.99

Buy this and your school gets £1.00 to spend on books Orders of £10 or more will earn 25% of your order value back in Scholastic Rewards for your school.

This product has not been rated yet.

0 reviews (Add a review)

Every order over £10 earns Free books for your school. #ScholasticSupportsSchools

Delivery information

FREE UK delivery for schools on orders containing at least one paid item.
FREE UK delivery on orders £25 or over
£3.95 delivery charge on UK orders under £25

Book Club orders

FREE delivery to schools
Books will be despatched after the school's order is confirmed

UK delivery within 5-7 working days

Delivery charges and times vary for overseas addresses

Refund and returns policy

More books for 8 - 12 year olds

Product description

They might have red hats and white beards, but they’re definitely not Santa Claus. They’re evil. They’re real. And you really don’t want to sit on their laps. Hurray: it’s the first book in a mega-scary new series. The most infamous Goosebumps villains are on the loose and coming after you! There’s no place to hide. And definitely not the garden shed… Jay Gardner has just moved to a rather odd little town. Why do all the people have lawn gnomes in front of their homes? And why are they so afraid to go outside at night? A little prank involving their silly gnomes would be a big laugh – right?

Product Details

Series

Goosebumps (book 1)

Format

Paperback

ISBN

9781407178813

Date published

March 2nd, 2017

Accelerated Reader

AR book level: 3.0; Middle years; 3.0 points

Other details

160 pages

Condition

New

Series

Goosebumps

Author/Illustrator

R.L. Stine

Goosebumps cast a spell upon children by transforming even the most reluctant students into avid readers. Despite the fact that almost every book has a different collection of characters, the series has one common element that kids can’t get enough of: THE AUTHOR!

However believable his plots seem to his readers, Stine insists he has never lived one of his stories. “I’ve never turned into a bee – I’ve never been chased by a mummy or met a ghost. But many of the ideas in my books are suggested by real life. For example, one Halloween my son, Matt, put a mask on and then had trouble pulling it off. That gave me the idea for The Haunted Mask.”

Although he never experienced terror first hand, he did enjoy reading about it. “When I was a kid, there were these great comic books called )Tales From The Crypt_ and The Vault of Horror. They were gruesome. I discovered them in the barbershop and thought they were fabulous. I used to get a haircut every Saturday so I wouldn’t miss any of these comic books. I had no hair at all when I was a kid!”

His ideas came from two sources: his memory and his imagination. “When I write, I try to think back to what I was afraid of or what was scary to me, and try to put those feelings into books.” He also keeps a tribal mask and a skeleton hanging in his writing studio to provide eerie surroundings. Although he handles the writing by himself, Stine says he gets “lots of help from my editors, my readers, and my friends.”

Kids reading Goosebumps may be looking for a scare, but the laughs they get are no accident. Before he was R.L., he was Jovial Bob, author of such works as 101 Silly Monster Jokes, and Bozos on Patrol and editor of Bananas magazine. His ability to know what kids will laugh at , as well as what will frighten them, makes the Goosebumps series all the more enjoyable for his readers.

Stine started writing when he was 9 years old! He would write stories and jokes on an old typewriter and hand them out at school. “The teacher would grab them and take them away,” Stine says, “but I kept doing it.” He wrote for his high school newspaper in Columbus Ohio. After graduating from Ohio State University, he moved to New York City, where he worked on a variety of writing jobs.

Although his books are fun and exciting, writing them is serious stuff. He treats writing “…like a job.” To unwind after work he enjoys playing the pinball machine conveniently located in his own apartment.

For aspiring authors, Stine feels reading is as important as writing. He offers this advice: “If you want to be a writer, don’t worry so much about writing. Read as much as you can. Read as many different writers as you can. Soak up the styles. You can learn all kinds of ways to say things.” As a boy he read Norse legends, Greek myths, Edgar Allan Poe and baseball stories. “And Mad Magazine changed my life” His favorite thriller? Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury.