In 1990, R. L. Stine was a successful author. He had already written a best-selling series called Fear Street. Young adults loved his spooky stories. But he wondered if he could write a series for even younger readers—something scary, but not too scary. R. L. Stine never began working until he had the perfect title. He thought day and night about what to call this new children’s series, but the name just wasn’t coming to him.

One morning, as he was reading the TV listings, R. L. saw an advertisement that said “It’s Goosebumps Week on Channel 11!” And he thought that would be the perfect name for his new series: Goosebumps! He knew it was going to be something special.

Goosebumps was equal parts scary and funny. It combined ideas from Fear Street and all the other scary stories, funny magazines, and silly joke books he had created as a child.

By July 1992, the first book in the Goosebumps series, Welcome to Dead House, was in bookstores. And children around the world loved it!

R. L. Stine’s previous books had been popular, but nothing like this. At one point, his Goosebumps books were selling four million copies a month! The series grew into the biggest world...