Spooksville #22 The Creepy Creature, #23 Phone Fear, and #24 The Witch's Gift

In Spooksville #22, The Creepy Creature, Cindy and Bryce are hiking in the woods when a big blob attacks Bryce, and then eats him. The blob then disappears.  Cindy tells the others that Bryce is dead, but later, Bryce reappears.

Bryce is acting very strange, but the others cannot figure out what is wrong.  The children's quest to find out what is wrong with Bryce takes them to another world where they learn of a battle between two enemy forces. The children return home, thinking that all is well, but they soon learn that an unwelcome presence has returned with them.

This is another very creative story.

This is a very good book.

In Spooksville #23, Phone Fear, the residents of Spooksville are receiving creepy phone calls from someone with a mechanical voice.  The caller, known as Neernitt, makes demands, and if the recipient does not comply, they are attacked immediately.

Later, the children realize what Neernitt really is, and that he is truly everywhere all at once. The children end up held hostage in Watch's house, forced to follow Neernitt's orders. Can they escape?

This book ties in with the previous title in the series and also has a highly creative plot. This is an excellent story.

In Spooksville #24, The Witch's Gift, Ann Templeton is leaving Spooksville forever. Before she leaves, she allows each child to make a wish, which will be granted the next morning.  The only stipulation is that each child cannot reveal their wish to any of the others. By the events that occur, children are able to guess each other's wishes, even though none of them have been actually revealed.  The wishes don't make them as happy as they expect, and the wishes have unforeseen consequences.

This is the final book in the series.  Pike made Bum the mayor again at the end of the story, so he had to have known that this would be the last title.  My only regret is that we never learned why Watch doesn't have a last name and why he lives alone.

Spooksville is a good series, and I enjoyed it.

Spooksville #19 Night of the Vampire, #20 The Dangerous Quest, and #21 The Living Dead

In Spooksville #19, Night of the Vampire, Ted, a student from school, stumbles onto the tennis court as Adam and his friends play tennis.  Ted passes out and appears to have lost a lot of blood.  Ted has neck wounds, and Watch suspects that Ted has been bitten by a vampire.

Watch's suspicions is correct, and the children learn that the people of Spooksville are rapidly being turned into vampires.  Can the children find a way to destroy the vampires?

I enjoyed this book.

The high-numbered Spooksville books are extremely hard to find.  The first two books shown in this post are from the United Kingdom.  I had to order them from the UK due to the scarcity of the books.

In Spooksville #20, The Dangerous Quest, a mysterious stranger shows up in Spooksville and uses a spell to infect Watch with a deadly disease.  Watch will die, unless the children can reverse the spell.  Sally, Adam, and Watch use the Secret Path to follow the stranger.  In the end, the children discover that someone must die, regardless of what they do.

The ending of this book ties in with a previous title in the series.  These books towards the end of this series are very creative.

This is an excellent story.

In Spooksville #21, The Living Dead, skeletons rise from their graves in the town cemetery.  The skeletons are after Watch, because they feel that Watch has cheated death.  The children will be required to time travel in order to try to outsmart the Grim Reaper.  Can they do it?

This book ties in with two previous books in the series.  All of the stories that tie in with other books are stronger, since they have more meaning.

This is a very good book.

Spooksville #17 The Thing in the Closet and #18 Attack of the Killer Crabs

In Spooksville #17, The Thing in the Closet, Cindy is afraid of her closet.  She wakes up at night, fearful of what might be inside the closet.  One night, she sees a strange green glow coming from behind the closet door, which is slightly ajar.  The second time that Cindy sees the light, she calls Adam, who races over to help.  When Adam arrives, Cindy has disappeared.  The children devise a scheme that will allow them to follow Cindy and hopefully save her.

I think we can all relate to the idea of being afraid of what lurks behind a slightly open door at night in a dark room.  I prefer my closet door to be shut.  There is something about an open door...

I enjoyed this book.

In Spooksville #18, Attack of the Killer Crabs, huge crabs that are forty feet in diameter come ashore near Spooksville, destroying everything in their path.  Bum, of course, knows all about the nearby underwater city inhabited by the ancient race of Lemurians. Bum believes that the Lemurians have sent the giant crabs on shore.  The children must find a way to get down to the underwater city so that they can talk sense into the Lemurians.

I love how Bum, who is the town's resident homeless person, knows all about the supernatural creatures that live in the area.

I greatly enjoyed both books.

I feel like the higher-numbered titles in the series are the more creative ones, and it's a shame that these titles have not been reprinted.  Strangely Simon and Schuster has only reprinted the first half of the series, and the first half is easier to find in the original editions.  Publishers always reprint the books that are easier to find, presumably because those titles sold more copies.  They fail to understand that the later titles are the ones in greater need of being reprinted.

Sppoksville #14 The Evil House, #15 Invasion of the No-Ones, and #16 Time Terror

In Spooksville #14, The Evil House, on Halloween night the children are out trick-or-treating when Adam decides that he wants to check out Evil House.  The others insist that no one who has entered Evil House has ever come back out, but Adam won't back down. The children enter Evil House, find a stairway to the basement, and become trapped in a carnival full of all of the people who have ever entered Evil House.

In this mysterious place, everyone has become the character their costume represents.  Unfortunately, Bryce and Sally are dressed as vampires, and they want to drink the blood of their friends.  Can Adam find a way out before someone gets killed?



This is a very good book that is quite suspenseful.

In Spooksville #15, Invasion of the No-Ones, strange balls of light appear near Spooksville. The children's new friend, Tira, seems to lead them to the balls of light.  Adam is touched by one of the balls.  Adam appears to be okay, except that he insists that nothing has happened, like the ball of light never touched him.  The others fear that Adam has been changed somehow.  Even more concerning, Tira suddenly disappears.  Will the others be attacked by the balls of light?

I greatly enjoyed this book.

In Spooksville #16, Time Terror, Adam and his friends find a strange toy in the alley near the movie theater.  The children touch the toy and are sent back in time.  Watch figures out what happened and gets them back to the present.  Sally decides to take the toy home, and she uses it with Adam.  The other children are forced to find a way to help Sally and Adam make it back to the present.

This is a good book.

Spooksville #11 The Deadly Past, #12 The Hidden Beast, and #13 Creature in the Teacher

In Spooksville #11, The Deadly Past,  a doorway from 60 million years ago opens in the hills near Spooksville.  A pterodactyl enters Spooksville and takes Cindy back to its nest.

The children soon learn that a war is raging between two groups of aliens, and that one group has opened the doorway in an attempt to destroy the world.  The other children must find a way to defeat the aliens, rescue Cindy, and close the doorway to the past before it is too late!

Aliens show up in these books rather often.

I enjoyed this book.

In Spooksville #12, The Hidden Beast, Bryce's cousin, Leah, brings the children a treasure map.  They agree to help her find the treasure, even though some of the children have doubts about Leah and her motive. After all, Leah seems to have all the answers even though she claims not to understand the directions to the treasure.

Too late, the children realize that they should have been more careful.  The hunt for treasure unleashes a deadly creature that plans to destroy Spooksville.

This is a good book.

In Spookville #13, Creature in the Teacher, the children return to school after summer break.  The children suspect that their new science teacher, Mr. Snakol, is eating the lab animals.  After a new student named George disappears after meeting with Mr. Snakol, the children fear that Mr. Snakol has killed him.

Of course this all ends up having to do with aliens.  That's just a given in Pike's world.

The blurb on the front cover cracks me up:

"Their teacher was not normal."

I remember thinking that about my teachers quite a few times.

I enjoyed this book.

Spooksville #9 The Wishing Stone and #10 The Wicked Cat

In Spooksville #9, The Wishing Stone, Sally finds a black hand sticking out of a rock. The hand is holding a cube-shaped stone.  Sally decides to take the stone.  Look, if I saw a hand holding a cube while sticking out of a rock, I certainly wouldn't remove the cube from the hand.  I'd probably run the other way, especially if my town were constantly under attack by magical creatures.

Anyway, Sally accidentally discovers that any wish she makes comes true while she holds the stone.  Suddenly, the children have everything they could ever want, until the evil debt collector arrives.  The children are destined to be slaves on a distant planet for the rest of their lives.  Ouch.

I enjoyed this book.

In Spooksville #10, The Wicked Cat, the children encounter a beautiful black cat in the woods.  Sally takes a fancy to the cat, although the others sense that the cat is not normal.  The children fight about the cat, and Sally goes home with it.

The next day, a new girl named Jessie acts like she already knows Adam, Watch, and Cindy.  Jessie knows everything that happened to them the previous day.  And Sally is nowhere to be seen.  Jessie also has curious habits, like licking her fingers then rubbing her arms.  Hmm.

Adam, Watch, and Cindy figure out that Sally has been turned into a cat while the black cat has turned into Jessie.  Poor Sally does not make a very attractive cat.

This book is pretty funny.  I greatly enjoyed it.

Spooksville #7 The Dark Corner and #8 The Little People

In Spooksville #7, The Dark Corner, Sally tells the others about a boy named Bryce who uses the Secret Path to fight against all of the evil creatures of the world.  Sally finally convinces the others to come to the entrance to the Secret Path where they find Bryce's backpack.  Sally admits that she is worried about Bryce.  Cindy decides to stay behind while the other three enter the Secret Path. Adam, Sally, and Watch find themselves trapped in a horrible place.  Will they ever get home?

The back cover synopsis is completely wrong. It states that Bum told them about a fun place in the Secret Path, so the children enter the path.  Bum has nothing to do with their decision!


This is a very good book.

In Spooksville #8, The Little People, the children go on a picnic in the woods.  Their belongings are stolen by leprechauns. The children find Pan as they search for the leprechauns.  Pan was tricked into gambling away his world to an evil magician and is now stuck on Earth.  The children go with Pan to his world to help him reclaim it.

I enjoyed this book.  However, I enjoy the ones set on Earth with magical creatures more than I do any of the books that are set in other worlds.

Spooksville #5 The Cold People and #6 The Witch's Revenge

In Spooksville #5, The Cold People, the four children come across blocks of ice out in the woods in the middle of summer.  Watch decides to thaw one out.  What could possibly  go wrong?  A frozen zombie man comes to life and changes Watch into one of them.  Soon, all of the blocks have been thawed, and Spooksville is overrun by the cold people, who are determined to make everyone just like them.

Spooky!  This story is very similar to a zombie story, even though the cold people are technically not zombies.

On page 97, "Ten minutes after saying goodbye to Adam and Sally, Cindy and Bum began to feel guilty about not doing more to help their friends.  At least Cindy felt guilty. She didn't know if guilt was an emotion Bum allowed himself to experience."

This book is excellent.

In Spooksville #6, The Witch's Revenge, Adam, Watch, Sally, and Cindy decide to visit Ann Templeton in her castle.  Once inside, the four children find necklaces labeled IMMORTALITY, STRENGTH, MATURITY, and BEAUTY.  Each child chooses one necklace and puts it on.  The children find that the necklaces do give them exactly what was promised, but at the same time, they learn that they are now trapped inside the castle. Ann Templeton tells them that this is a test and that they must find their way out on their own.

I greatly enjoyed this story.

Spooksville #3 Haunted Cave and #4 Aliens in the Sky

In Spooksville #3, The Haunted Cave, Watch and Sally tell Adam and Cindy about the Haunted Cave that is located outside Spooksville.  Watch and Sally report that the cave is full of dangerous creatures.  Cindy doesn't believe it, and she insists that they go to the cave to see if anything strange is there.

The children decide that Watch will stay outside the cave while the other three explore. Shortly after Adam, Cindy, and Sally enter the cave, the cave's opening closes, trapping them inside!  The trapped children are forced to explore deep inside the cave in hope of finding a way out.  The cave is full of dangerous creatures.  Meanwhile, Watch tries to get Bum to help him find a way inside the cave.

This book is excellent.

In Spooksville #4, Aliens in the Sky, two flying saucers land by the lake.  Adam and Watch are abducted by the first flying saucer.  Cindy and Sally end up in the second flying saucer. Sally launches a crazy scheme that might just work.  The girls hope to find a way to rescue the boys as both flying saucers race towards an alien planet.

A young alien is able to read minds better than the older aliens, and he states that this is because the younger aliens have less stress.  I found that interesting, and it makes sense.

I did not like this book as much as the others, but it is still good.

Spooksville #1 The Secret Path and #2 The Howling Ghost

The Spooksville series was written by Christopher Pike and was published by Simon and Schuster, presumably to compete with R. L. Stine's Goosebumps series.  The series is mild horror with all books containing supernatural events.  The series ran for 24 volumes.  The first half of the series has been reprinted, but the second half has not. As a result, the second half of the series is hard to find.  The last four to six books are very scarce and can easily cost $20 or more each.

In the back of each book is a biography of Christopher Pike.  I love it.

Little is known about Christopher Pike, although he is supposed to be a strange man.  It is rumored that he was born in New York but grew up in Los Angeles.  He has been seen in Santa Barbara lately, so he probably lives there now.  But no one really knows what he looks like, or how old he is.  It is possible that he is not a real person, but an eccentric creature visiting from another world.  When he is not writing, he sits and stares at the walls of his huge haunted house.  A short, ugly troll wanders around him in the dark and whispers scary stories in his ear.  Christopher Pike is one of this planet's best-selling authors of young adult fiction.

The series is set in Springville, which is a town somewhere on the western coast of the United States.  I assume that Springville is in California, since many of Pike's teen books are set in that state.  The unofficial name of Springville is Spooksville, because many citizens have disappeared and strange creatures roam the town.

Adam, Cindy, Watch, and Sally are the primary characters.  Adam and Cindy both recently moved to the town, and Adam is the leader of the group.  Watch wears four watches and does not seem to have a last name.  Watch wears thick glasses and cannot see well.  Sally is outspoken and rude.  She always bosses the others.  The children frequently go to a homeless man named Bum for assistance.  Bum used to be the mayor before he became homeless, and he knows all about the town's history.

In Spooksville #1, The Secret Path, Bum tells Adam, Watch, and Sally how to find the Secret Path.  The children follow his directions and end up in a dangerous alternative version of Spooksville.  The children struggle to find a way back home.

This book serves mainly as an introduction to the series.  I enjoyed it less than most books in the series, although it is okay.

In Spooksville #2, The Howling Ghost, Cindy and her brother, Neil, have recently arrived in Spooksville.  Cindy and Neil are at the beach near the abandoned lighthouse when it suddenly lights up.  Neil is sucked into the air and vanishes!  When Adam, Watch, and Sally learn about the disappearance, they introduce themselves to Cindy and offer to help her find her brother.  The children soon learn that an angry ghost occupies the lighthouse.  The children decide to explore it in hopes of finding Neil.

After I read this book, I decided to acquire all of the books in the set so that I could read them.  I enjoyed this book.