#willyappelman

Here’s a photo of my Mom and I the day I was born

When you stay up all night playing #goosebumps board games

Wow...and just like that...it’s over.  My entire Goosebumps collection.  Looking back on it now, it feels as if the whole thing was a dream.  As if my childhood, my collection and reading of Goosebumps were all imagined.  As if I had been a part of R.L.’s plot the entire time...just another time traveling, monster blood eating, half-plant, vampire ghost giant.  Haha.  That would mean that I’m still in the story now...and it’s not going to end...ever...

Solid story, good morals, great music, not too scary, but some different territory for R.L.  This book gets 44 Goosebumps, it would be cool to fly, but maybe I feel like I’m flying when I’m at a Jack Johnson concert, just Wasting Time with Good People watching the Constellations.  

Mathew Amsterdam is a 12 year-old-boy (shocker).  He gets picked up by his older brother and sister and his dachshund, Biggie, makes his life hell-ish.  He really hates his tiny bedroom, so one night he sneaks into the guest room to sleep.  The next morning he wakes up as a 16-year old boy (super shocker), and his old brother and sister are now younger than him.  He goes to high-school and doesn’t know where he’s supposed to go.  There is a cute girl who helps him, her name is Lacie (turns out to be a reality cop- you’ll see)- and some bullies who say- “we’re gonna get you”.  That night he goes to bed in the guest room and wakes up and he’s 12 again, but now he doesn’t have any brothers and sisters.  This continues to happen, he wakes up and he’s really young, one time he wakes up and he’s a monster, he even wakes up as a squirrel!  he finally gets trapped by Lacie and the Reality Police- and it is finally revealed that his guest room is a portal into different realities.  He has to break the chain and get back to his normal life! He finally gets back into his house (as a squirrel) and sleeps in his own bed!  Then life gets back to normal!  Phew!  But when he comes home one day, he mom reveals to him that for his birthday, she moved his room into the guestroom!  NOOOO! This book went to a different place than most Goosebumps books, an emotionally poetic place.  I appreciated that.  Was it scary- nah.  It was a bit Matrix-y, which I appreciate because I think of myself as a Neo.  This book get’s 45 Goosebumps- spring is coming!

Our piece begins with Jaclyn reciting a poem that she can’t remember the last verse too.  It was a poem that has been with her since birth...she does remember...”Beware, the snowman”.  Jaclyn lives with her Aunt Greta, her legal guardian, in Chicago.  Her mother passed away when she was young and her father mysteriously disappeared (remember this!).  Aunt Greta moves Jaclyn to a tiny town in the Arctic Circle (cold!) called Sherpia.  When they get there Jaclyn finds it odd that every house has the same red-scarfed snowman in the front yard.  She quickly meets 2 neighborhood kids and they tell her of the evil snowman who lives on the hill.  Everyone has to have the snowmen in their yards to appease the evil snowman.  They tell Jaclyn about Conrad, a mystical man who has a wolf-like dog, who protects the evil snowman.  When Jaclyn asks her Aunt Greta, she pretends to be all like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about”...(BUT SHE DOES!) Jaclyn decides to go up the icy mountain and do some investigating for herself.  Her 2 friends come with her and distract Conrad and she goes and see’s the evil snowman!  When she goes to the snowman, it turns out he can speak and he says he is Jaclyn’s father!  He tells Jaclyn that he and her mother are sorcerers and her mother was killed by her Aunt Greta, and he was put under a snowman spell.  Then Aunt Greta shows up and says the monster is lying- Jaclyn tries to figure out who is right.  Aunt Greta says the snowman is an evil monster- NOT her father, but Jaclyn has to see for herself.  She then remembers the last words of her favorite poem, says them, and the snow melts off the snowman and he becomes AN EVIL MONSTER!  Aunt Greta and Jaclyn prepare to be thrown off a mountain when a whole army of snowmen come to their rescue!  It turns out, Conrad, who is magical, is Jaclyn’s Dad!  He had to stay in Sherpia to protect the village from the snowman and he called for the snowmen to save Greta and Jaclyn.  They are happy and decide to be together forever! This book got good in the end, but really took a while to THAW out.  I give it 5 Goosebumps, it was cold, gave me chills at times, but ultimately, I never WARMED up to it!  I guess I’ll wait for the next one to SPRING up!