GOOSEBUMPS HORRORLAND: #8: SAY CHEESE --- AND DIE SCREAMING
by R.L. Stine
Scholastic Paperbacks
ISBN: 9780439918763
Ages 9-12
160 pages
Julie really, really wants to take the important photograph of her school's student body for the yearbook. If she gets the job from yearbook advisor Mr. Webb, her dad will ante up a brand new camera. Of course, she has to compete with David Blank, who is so sneaky and competitive that he actually snaps photos assigned to Julie before she can get there.
Julie can't wait to show Mr. Webb her plans for setting up the student body shot. She wants to arrange the students in the empty school pool and then shoot the shot from the high diving board. Unfortunately, though, David is in the room with Mr. Webb when she arrives, and he doesn't hold back from mocking her ideas. David, it turns out, has his own ideas for how to stage the shot. He proposes they have a contest, with whoever takes the most pictures that are accepted for the yearbook the winner of the student body shot. Mr. Webb agrees, giving them one week. Julie is dying (oops, bad choice of words!) to win this contest.
Meanwhile, she and her best friend Reena go for a Saturday afternoon bike ride. They run into the school’s mean girls, Greta and Becka, who make a point of jeering at Julie. The two girls have set out to ruin Julie's life since her birthday party, because she did not invite them. Julie and Reena are distracted and wander into a run-down neighborhood they don't recognize. They spot a garage sale and stop to browse. As Reena heads for the clothes, Julie sees an intriguing old camera. She picks it up, and the woman who is running the garage sale has quite an interesting reaction. But the woman's daughter gives Julie the camera in a secretive manner so her mother doesn't see.
At home, Julie pretends to take a picture of Reena. She knows the camera doesn't have film in it, so she’s amazed when the flash goes off and a photo slides out and begins to develop. The picture is great, except for Reena having a bad case of "red eye." When Julie scans the photo hoping to fix the eyes, Reena begins to scream. Her eyes hurt --- and they are bright red. Julie and her mom try to help Reena, but nothing really seems to help, so she heads for home.
Julie remembers she has an assignment to take pictures of the girls' basketball game. But at the gym, she ends up having to use the weird old garage sale camera. She doesn't even remember bringing it, but it's the only one available. Julie takes a photo with it, but she somehow only gets a player's arm in the frame. As she's watching the picture develop, she hears an ear-splitting scream. The player whose photo Julie just took is now somehow dangling from the basketball hoop by her arm, which is obviously broken. Just as a dreadful realization begins to dawn, Julie's arch-enemy David appears. He grabs the camera from Julie, points it at her…and shoots. Now Julie is the one in trouble. Will she manage to survive so she can go to that special amusement park, HorrorLand Theme Park?
This thrilling chiller not only comes with the HorrorLand serial story, but there's a special bonus. Readers get to check out a camera story that appeared in an early Goosebumps book!
--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon (terryms2001@yahoo.com)
Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
Back to top.
