Books Give Kids ‘Goosebumps’

In 1994, Barnes and Noble bookstore in Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich., started a “Goosebumps” club. Managers promised to call members every time a new title came in for the series of creepy horror books for ages 8-12.

But when more than 200 kids signed up for the club, the store was overwhelmed.

R.L. Stine’s “Goosebumps” series is so hot it’s scary. How hot?

An estimated 40 million Stine books are in print.

Last year, 13.9 million “Goosebumps” books were sold - 8.2 million in titles published in 1994, the rest older titles.

Among the top 15 paperback children’s books of 1994, “Goosebumps” books were numbers 2-14. (A “Lion King” paperback book was No. 1.) The top “Goosebumps” seller, “Deep Trouble” (Scholastic, $3.50), alone sold 734,000 copies.