Goosebumps 2 – Stay Out of the Basement

R. L. Stine's Stay Out of the Basement is a Goosebumps story for 8 year olds about a dad whose secret experiment seems to be changing him.

What happens

Margaret and her brother Casey used to play Frisbee with their dad all the time. Now he hardly ever comes up from the basement. He's a plant scientist who lost his job at the university, and he's working on something at home that he won't show anyone.

The first time they try to peek, he's at the bottom of the stairs holding a bleeding hand. He yells at them to stay out. They've never heard him shout like that before.

Then Mum flies off to look after her sister in hospital. Of course the basement door gets opened (with a little help from Margaret's friend Diane, who calls her chicken).

What's down there is a hot, steamy jungle under bright white lights. A few of the plants seem to be breathing. Others moan. When Casey goes back for the T-shirt he left behind, one of them wraps its tendrils round his waist and won't let go.

What makes it creepy is how ordinary Dad's changes are at first. He's cold and flat with them. He starts wearing a baseball cap he never takes off. Then Margaret catches him eating plant food straight out of the bag! How would you feel if your own dad started acting like a stranger?

Casey is the joker, which helps a lot. He fakes being electrocuted by one of Dad's machines just to watch the girls panic. Later he staggers round the kitchen as The Incredible Plant Man.

There's nothing gory here, but the worry about Dad is very real. Mum is far away and Margaret has no grown-up to tell. If your reader gets anxious when a parent isn't quite themselves, that part may hit harder than the moaning plants do.

What to read next

If they're after more slime and less gardening, try Monster Blood. Evan is left with a great-aunt he hasn't seen since he was two, and he buys an old can of glowing green goo from a dusty toy shop.