Admit it. You read the headline and just couldn’t resist reading more.  What is it about ghost stories that fascinate us so? Ghosts are scary and spooky. We’re supposed to fear them but yet when there’s a ghost story to be heard, we inch closer to the storyteller, listen intently and are immediately hooked.  The same can be said for Goosebumps and perhaps that’s why the book series has been so popular for 20 years—we like to be scared. Now imagine when the ghost storyteller is Goosebumps author R.L. Stine!

Today, in celebration of the 20^th anniversary of Goosebumps, a group of 3^rd graders from the Mandell School in New York City were treated to an original ghost story told by R.L. Stine himself! Just in time for Halloween, the students participated in ‘Trick or Read’, a live Goosebumps adventure. R.L. Stine told the story of a farmer named Ferris. Ferris, eager to plant new crops on his farm, steals pumpkin seeds from Yost, a mysterious farmer he met walking along the countryside one foggy evening. Ferris plants the seeds and soon pumpkin crops begin to grow.  Nothing good can come from stealing and Ferris learns a hard lesson when the vines from his pumpkin patch devour him alive! Yost, as it turns out, is a ghost that appears every Halloween seeking his pumpkins and he can’t rest until they are found. 

It was up to the students of the Mandell School to finish R.L. Stine’s story and he sent them off into a corn maze to complete 20 challenges to find Yost’s missing pumpkins.  The challenges were equally frightening as the story with names like Spaghetti Worms, Monster Blood Pumpkins or Black Apples or Roses, so you can imagine the spook-tacular time the students had solving the mystery of farmer Yost! The students were fearless and successfully completed the story by finding all of Yost the Ghost’s pumpkins. I guess he won’t be haunting anymore…or will he?

For more frightening photographs of today’s event, check out our 20 Years of Goosebumps board on Pinterest!

REMINDER! The Mandell School students received their treat today from R.L. Stine.  Don’t miss your Goosebumps treat this Halloween! Chat with R.L. Stine on October 31^st from 1-3pm ET on Scholastic’s Facebook and Twitter accounts. It’ll be a hauntingly good time!