Night of the Living Monsters is based on the Goosebumps movie and is basically a slimmed-down version of that story, sanitized even further than the already kid-friendly popular horror flick. The story is simple and straight-forward, and this might be a good choice for kids who would like to enjoy the story but are young enough that the movie could potentially be frightening. The book does not contain any of the spine-tingling creepiness of R. L. Stine’s original Goosebumps series upon which the movie is based.

The brevity of this book does not allow any room for character development beyond a bare minimum. The simplicity of the story and the lack of descriptive text is bolstered by the pictures, which are scenes from the movie. These pictures add a feeling of action that would otherwise be lacking. This book would be a good choice for a younger middle grader who is old enough to feel grown-up by reading a scary book…but young enough to not want to actually be scared by it.

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Violence/Gore:  A few verbal threats; a character jokingly asks if another character is planning to kill him; character swings a baseball bat at others, but misses; a monster throws a heavy object at characters; property damage to a wide area; a few vehicles are destroyed; people are frozen in ice; characters have a few fights with monsters using improvised weapons; monsters chase characters; a character gives orders to others to kill people; a character’s hands are broken (not described other than a “crunch”); a character is consumed whole by a monster; a Ferris wheel breaks and rolls with character aboard. Several of the pictures in the book contain images of monsters such as a werewolf, zombies, a creepy clown, and an ape-like creature.

Sex/Nudity:  None

Mature Subject Matter:

Bullying, paranormal.

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None