Here’s an unlikely front in the culture war: a land where divorce is unusual, lawns are meticulously tended, and children go to schools that are impervious to drugs, condoms, and multiculturalism. In this homogenous suburbia, nobody cusses and rec rooms abound. Homosexuality is non-existent, incest unthinkable. This is the literary universe of juvenile horror writer R. L. Stine, the best-selling writer in America — and it may be the most dangerous place in America.
Every month, 1.25 million children buy into Stine’s world, the peaceful neighborhoods where youngsters live in jeopardy, helpless against an assortment of evils. Stine’s older readers (9-14) thrill to the homicidal houses and jealous teenagers of the Fear Street collections. For the very young (ages 8- 12), there are the malicious puppets and robotic camp counselors of the Goosebumps series. Each slim, large-print Goosebumps release predictably surges to the top of the bestseller lists, outselling the John Grishams and Anne Rices of the moment. On a given week this summer, Stine had as many as seven of the nation’s 50 top-selling books, and as many as 15 of the top 150. At this rate, it’s no wonder he has 90 million books in print.
