Stinetinglers, short stories that scare in just the right way

We’ve read a couple of age-appropriate scary books lately. And while we enjoyed them to an extent they all felt like it was paying homage to something else, now here’s the interesting part. We have never read a Goosebumps book. The series came on the scene too late for us to read as its intended audience and since a new one hasn’t popped up on our radar, they’re Greek to us. Stinetinglers is from R.L. Stine and sparkles the way that I imagine some people view his more well-known publications.

As I haven’t read Goosebumps, I don’t know if they’re faux-scary, fun-scary, age-appropriate gory/scary, or a little bit on the silly side. What I like about Stinetinglers is that it’s a collection of short stories that are intended to be fun-scary and fully knock that description out of the park. It’s ten short stories, each of which has a different backdrop, but all of which succeed in entertaining ages nine and up.

There’s a note from R.L. Stine at the beginning of the book that sets up where the author would like readers to perceive the story’s surroundings. To further put those upper elementary through middle school students into the appropriately spooky mood, there’s an introductory page before each short story. That introduction is printed on a black sheet of paper, with monsteresque, demon hands accented in a darker black, creeping out of the corners.

These introductions hook readers quickly. It’s a paragraph and a half in most cases, but they’re so well written that they all but physically drag readers into the following story. A summary or introduction can be challenging, it’s a lesson that I’m teaching now in 8^th grade ELA and crafting one that has enough details, but is also short enough to get them going to the meat of the story is tough. Make it interesting, but also short, with details, but not so many elements that you ruin the surprise.

The short stories in Stinetinglers have a very Twilight Zone feeling about them. Granted a majority of the intended audience won’t realize that, but it’s the fact that the reader’s mind is doing most of the scares that are the most effective. Picture if you will, a teen basketball star who suddenly finds that his skin is loose in some places, too loose like it doesn’t fit him anymore. This is no metaphor for teenagers and their changing ways, this teen is changing, but why?

Stinetinglers lets the imagination do what it does, as each short story has a background that any tween or teen can understand and roll their eyes in frustration or agreement with the characters. However, just when it’s feeling comfortable they throw in that paranoid, monster, unexpected twist that pays off in the final paragraph.

Each short story in Stinestinglers is around 24 pages long and this is a great building block for those elementary school-aged readers who are on the cusp of needing to read longer stories. In my 8th grade class now they’re reading a 30-page text and the amount of complaining could only be equaled if Youtube, TikTok, and the wifi went down. This is a fun book that builds longer reading skills, provides a great number of scares and simultaneously succeeds as comfort reading, as well as the rare book that will provide fodder at the elementary and middle school water cooler.

Stinetinglers, All New Stories by the Master of Scary Tales is by R.L. Stine and A Feiwel and Friends Book, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group.

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