The book series has sold more than 300 million copies. In the new e-book versions of the series, words like “crazy” and “squirrel cheekbones” have been changed.
Saturday 4 March 2023 09:41, UK
The author of the popular children’s book series Goosebumps has adapted more than a dozen titles to remove or change references to mental health, ethnicity and weight.
After JK Rowling Harry Potter, Goosebumps is the second best-selling book series in the world.
After once selling more than four million copies a month, publisher Scholastic is reissuing children’s horror novels as edited e-books, according to The Times, amid ongoing wrangling over publishing censorship.
More than 100 modifications were made by author RL Stine to his original works, with examples including characters now described as “cheerful” rather than “fat”.
References to villains making victims “slaves” have also been removed.
While the word “crazy” has also been replaced by “stupid” and other alternatives, The Times reports.
The first Goosebumps books were published in 1992. The series includes such works as Welcome to the House of the Dead and Stay Out of the Basement.
Changes to the original texts follow immediately Rishi Sunak condemned the rewriting of Roald Dahl’s children’s books.
The prime minister cited the Big Friendly Giant’s warning not to “swallow” words when he condemned the move which was also described as “absurd censorship” by author Sir Salman Rushdie.
Copies of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels have also been altered to remove a number of references to race and will be reprinted later this year.
The description of ‘at least six chins’ changed
Mr Stine, 79, from Ohio, US, originally published 62 books in the Goosebumps series. In 2015 it was adapted for the screen, in a film with Jack Black, with a sequel in 2018.
The Times reported that in a story about aliens who abduct large people and eat them, a character described as having “at least six chins” is now “at least six foot six”.
In another book, a reference to wolf-whistling has been removed, while another character has been stripped of descriptions such as resembling a “bowling ball” and “squirrel cheeks”.
Multiple mentions of the word “crazy” are also dropped throughout the series. Substitutions include “stupid”, “wild”, “scary”, “out of mind” and “stressed out”. The term “a real nut” is now “a wild real” and “real nut” is “weird”.
The adaptations are said to be part of an ebook reprint that began in 2018.
The Times said Stine and Scholastic did not respond to a request for comment.
