about the book
“If you think you’re brave enough, then come in with me.”
Well, are you going to go in…THERE? O.K. You’re more courageous than me.
A few things to watch out for: Don’t shake hands with Snacker, the warty green monster. He’ll eat them, bones and all! (Hands are his favorite snack.) Don’t get too close to the twins Yucky and Mucky; you might get hit with a load of snot. Don’t let sleeper-peeper talk you into bringing him home—unless you like a creepy monster under your bed!
You can always change your mind. But if you do go in, remember, at the Little Shop of Monsters, you don’t choose a monster…they choose you!
about the author
What is the one thing that all Goosebumps books have in common? They have different characters, different monsters, different settings, but the one thing they all have the same is, you guessed it, the author, R.L. Stine!
Stine began writing when he was nine years old, working on stories and jokes with an old typewriter. He would hand them out at school, and even though his teachers would take them away, he kept at it.
One day at the barber shop, Stine discovered comic book horror tales in Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror, and from then on, he loved horror. He went to the barber shop as many Saturdays he could, purely because he wanted the latest issues of these comics. He had very little hair as a kid!
If you want to write yourself, says Stine, the best thing you can do is to read, and read more, and read as many different writers as you can.
Currently, R.L. Stine lives in New York City.
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Scholastic
Book trailer: Little Shop of Monsters
about the illustrator
Marc Brown is best known for the creation of his (30-year-old) eight-year-old character Arthur the aardvark, who is featured in many books as well as the PBS series, “Arthur.” Over time, Marc realized that Arthur’s world was formed during his third-grade year in Erie, Pennsylvania. “When I think back to third grade, Ms. Kingston’s class at Lakewood elementary in Erie, Pennsylvania, I think about how my whole…destiny was cast because I’ve gone back to third grade for so much of my material,” Marc says.
Marc based many of the characters in the series on teachers, friends, and family members, he had during that time. If you know anything about the Arthur books, you know that Marc likes to have fun with the illustrations. He has hidden the names of his children, and people and places he has visited over the years in the pages of his books.
Marc says he became a children’s book author because he was fired from all other the jobs he really wanted to do. He considers children like you as his boss—and he doesn’t want you to fire him, so he keeps working hard to create the best books he can.
Marc and his wife and daughter spend their summers on Martha’s Vineyard island in Massachusetts in one of the oldest houses on the island, built in 1735. When the island shuts down for the winter, they head back to New York City.
Sources:
Illustrator website
Illustrator biography: KidsReads
Illustrator interview: Reading Rockets
Illustrator interview: Random House Kids
Also by Marc Brown:
Wild About You! by Judy Sierra. Knopf Books for Young Readers. 2012.
If All the Animals Came Inside by Eric Pinder. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. 2012.
Zoozical by Judy Sierra. Knopf Books for Young Readers. 2011.
Farmyard Beat by Lindsey Craig. Knopf Books for Young Readers. 2011.
Dancing Feet! by Lindsey Craig. Knopf Books for Young Readers. 2010.
Born to Read by Judy Sierra. Alfred A. Knopf. 2008.
Wild About Books by Judy Sierra. Alfred A. Knopf. 2004.
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