Scholastic gets Goosebumps

Scholastic is reissuing 21 Goosebumps titles (March and May, all £4.99) and R L Stine’s autobiography (It Came From Ohio: My Life as a Writer, May, £4.99) next year, in advance of the release of the first Goosebumps film in August 2015.

Goosebumps is the second- bestselling series of all time globally, selling over 350 million books across 32 languages. It is surpassed only by Harry Potter. The 2015 publications will be the first reissue of the series for a decade.

Catherine Bell, co-group m.d. at Scholastic UK, said: “We think horror is coming back as a trend. Looking at the film market in particular over the past few years, with films like ‘ParaNorman’ and ‘Frankenweenie’, we think there’s a trend for slightly frightening but not completely terrifying horror for children.”

The series has 62 books in total, of which Scholastic will reissue 21. March will see the publication of 10 classic Goosebumps books, including Night of the Living Dummy and One Day at Horrorland. In May a further 11 titles—selected based on a combination of sales figures and ensuring a balanced list—will be issued, including The Ghost Next Door and A Shocker on Shock Street. Bell said: “Like any enormous series, there are a few substandard books. We’re sticking to the classics and core patterns.”

The covers feature an updated version of the original branding, which has been used worldwide since the books’ publication between 1992 and 1997.

Scholastic will be running a year-long campaign around the reissues, including retail campaigns with bookshops as well as projects with schools, cinema chains and other “kid-friendly brands”.

Bell emphasised the addictive quality of the books: “You can’t stop reading them, there’s a tension and rush of adrenaline that means that children finish one and want to start another. We don’t celebrate that enough with children—finishing a book and wanting to start another one is a real achievement in terms of encouraging children’s reading.”