Give Yourself Goosebumps facts for kids

Give Yourself Goosebumps is a thrilling series of horror fiction gamebooks created by the famous author R. L. Stine. After the huge success of the original Goosebumps books, Scholastic Press decided to launch this exciting spin-off series in 1995. R.L. Stine had actually written similar "choose your own adventure" style books before, so he was an expert!

Fifty books were published in this series, including special editions, between 1995 and 2000. Most of these books are now out-of-print, except for Please Don't Feed the Vampire.

How Do You Play Give Yourself Goosebumps?

Playing these books is super fun and easy! They are like regular novels, but with many different paths the story can take. You are the main character, and the book talks directly to you.

Making Choices in the Story

Instead of just reading from beginning to end, you get to make choices. At the bottom of most pages, you'll be told to turn to a certain page. But on special pages, you'll have at least two choices. Your decision changes what happens next to you, the main character.

If you make a bad choice, the story might lead to a "bad ending." This often means something scary or terrible happens to you! But don't worry, you can always go back and pick a different choice to try again.

Surprising Twists and Turns

Each book also has at least one page where your fate isn't just about your choice. It's about chance! For example, you might be told to:

• "Toss a Coin": Heads sends you to one page, tails to another.
• "Roll a Die": Odd numbers lead to one page, even to another.
• Try a real-life challenge: Turn to a different page based on if you succeed or not.

This cool way of telling stories came from the popular Choose Your Own Adventure book series.

Different Story Paths

Usually, there are two main stories and one smaller "side story" in each book. An early choice you make often decides which main story you'll follow. The side story is usually shorter and a bit lighter than the main scary parts.

Sometimes, you'll find choices that are clearly wrong. For example, eating strange blue eggs in Escape from Camp Run-For-Your-Life. If you pick one of these, the book might even "talk" to you! It might tell you to go back and choose something smarter, or it could just end the story right there. It's like the book knows you made a silly mistake!

Who is the Main Character?

The main character in these books is never named, and their gender isn't usually mentioned. This means you can easily imagine yourself as the hero, no matter if you're a boy or a girl! Sometimes, a "he" might accidentally slip in, but mostly, it's left open.

However, there's often a "friend character" who does have a name and a gender. These friends usually stick with you through the adventure. The only thing that connects all the main characters across different books is that they all call themselves "Goosebumps Experts"!

What Kind of Endings Can You Expect?

Cover art for Give Yourself Goosebumps Special Edition #3: Trapped in the Circus of Fear, illustrated by Craig White.

Because you make so many choices, there are many ways each story can end! The endings are different for each book, but they often involve:

• Your character dying.
• Turning into something non-human, like a monster.
• Getting stuck somewhere you can't escape.
• Becoming frozen or unable to move, like a statue.
• Or, if you make all the right choices, you survive the scary adventure!

The very last page of an ending won't have any more choices. It will simply say "The End" or something similar that fits the story.

Tricky Endings

Some endings mix things up. You might turn into a creature and then get caught because of it. Or you might transform, but the ending is still pretty good! For example, in The Deadly Experiments of Dr. Eeek, you could turn into a dog but still make it home, even if you're stuck as a dog forever.

Not every bad choice leads to an immediate scary ending. Sometimes, a bad choice takes you to another page with more choices. But all those choices will lead to a bad ending because your first bad decision put you in a hopeless situation. You might not die right away, but that first choice sealed your fate! Luckily, the opposite can happen too: some choices lead you to pages where all paths end well.

Test Your Goosebumps Knowledge!

Each book also has at least one part where your knowledge of the original Goosebumps series is tested. You might be asked a question about a past Goosebumps book, or you might face something that appeared in an earlier story. Only a true Goosebumps fan would know what to do!

If you answer correctly, your story continues. If you answer wrong, it usually means a scary end for you! But don't worry, every book has at least one good ending, even with over 20 scary ones!

The Look of the Books: Covers!

The covers of Give Yourself Goosebumps books were really cool! They were metallic and holographic, with a design that seemed to move and change color when you tilted the book in the light. The design was different for most books, but some patterns were repeated.

Three artists created these awesome covers:

• Tim Jacobus: He did the covers for the original Goosebumps series and Goosebumps Series 2000. He only did one Give Yourself Goosebumps cover, Escape from the Carnival of Horrors.
• Mark Nagata: He illustrated the next 22 books, from Tick Tock, You're Dead! to Lost in Stinkeye Swamp.
• Craig White: He used computers for his illustrations and created the covers for the last 17 regular books and all 8 special edition books.

US vs. UK Covers

The books looked a bit different in the United States and the United Kingdom:

• In the UK, books 1-14 had covers that looked almost covered in a slimy substance. This sometimes hid important parts of the picture!
• Later UK books had more detail but still less than the US versions.
• The UK covers didn't sparkle like the US ones.
• The US books had a catchy tagline on the back, but the UK versions didn't.
• Even the short descriptions (blurbs) on the back were completely different between the two countries!

List of Give Yourself Goosebumps Books

Here's a look at some of the exciting books in the series: