If you had a child growing up in the 1990s, you remember when the “Goosebumps” series craze began. Author R.L. Stine accuses publisher Scholastic of changing his books to satisfy the woke scolds of today. He wants readers and fans to know that he had nothing to do with the changes.
Readers are rightfully outraged. These books were wildly popular, especially with younger readers of elementary and middle school age. I remember my son reading them as a child. They are horror stories for kids and R.L. Stine was a very prolific writer. There are 62 books in the original “Goosebumps” series written between 1992-1997. More than 400 million “Goosebumps” books have been sold, making it the best-selling series of all time for several years. It is the second biggest-selling book series after “Harry Potter.” At one point, Goosebumps sold 4 million books a month.
Stine says the publisher made the woke edits behind his back. He was never notified about it. Scholastic censored more than a dozen of his books. The edits were to avoid mentioning race or calling characters fat or crazy.
“This story is false. I have never changed a word in a Goosebumps book,” Stine stated firmly to a report accusing him of “re-editing the books to appease The Woke.”
Instead, the changes were made behind his back, Stine said in response to an angry reader who accused him of being “shameful” for supporting censorship.
Stine’s not woke, it’s Scholastic that’s bent to the will of The Woke. Stories to the contrary are false, he said. The publisher made over 100 amendments, changing words such as ‘plump’ to ‘cheerful’, and replacing ‘crazy’ with ‘silly’. I don’t know – if “silly” people are mentally unbalanced, shouldn’t more people be institutionalized? The new woke language doesn’t make sense. Scholastic set out to sanitize a series of horror stories. The publisher has re-released the books in their sanitized form.
As stories of Stine’s alleged cooperation with Scholastic continued, Stine pushed back.
Lindsey, the stories aren’t true. I’ve never changed a word in Goosebumps. Any changes were never shown to me.
— R.L. Stine (@RL_Stine) March 6, 2023
The UK Times said it found more than 100 edits in e-book versions of the series and noted some of the changes made by Scholastic.
It noted how one character who “acts real cool, like the rappers on MTV videos” now just “acts real cool” — and is described as having “brown skin” rather than being “African-American.”
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Mentions of slaves were also removed, as well as black face worn by a character dressed as “a dark and stormy night” for Halloween.
Characters were no longer “roly-poly,” and “plump” ones were described as now “cheerful.” Characters Stine called “overweight” are now merely “huge” and one with “at least six chins” is now “at least six feet six.”
A line about schoolgirls having “crushes” on their headmaster was cut, and a boy who wolf-whistled now merely “whistled loudly,” the UK Times noted. Something dismissed as “girl’s stuff” is now just “not interesting.”
“Girl’s stuff” is the same as “not interesting”? That’s sexist, isn’t it? Or is it just another example of The Woke canceling girls? As far as I know, there hasn’t been an inclusion of transgenderism but I can’t solidly confirm that.
Woke adults are doing such a disservice to young people today. It’s ok to put library books in public schools that tout sex changes and surgery that mutilate the bodies of young people confused about their gender identity. And it’s ok to push transgenderism as a gay agenda used to be pushed. Graphic sexual content has been discovered by horrified parents in library books. But, God forbid a child read the word “fat” or “wolf-whistled”, right? People have lost their minds and the children are the ones suffering from virtue-signaling woke adults. Whatever happened to basic common sense?
Scholastic confirmed its revision of Stine’s work.
Scholastic confirmed to The Post on Wednesday that it had made changes to the series that “has brought millions of kids to reading through humour with just the right amount of scary.”
“Scholastic takes its responsibility seriously to continue bringing this classic adolescent brand to each new generation,” a rep said.
“Scholastic reviewed the text to keep the language current and avoid imagery that could negatively impact a young person’s view of themselves today, with a particular focus on mental health.”
What a load of crap. There is a reason that the books were so loved by the readers. Kids had no problem enjoying them and it introduced the genre of horror stories to some who may not have been inclined to check it out. Just as the censorship of Roald Dahl is wrong, so is this of R.L. Stine. Let “Goosebumps” be “Goosebumps.”
