Goosebumps 15 – You Can’t Scare Me!

R. L. Stine's You Can't Scare Me is a funny Goosebumps story for 8 year olds about four friends trying to frighten the bravest girl in school.

What happens

Eddie gets scared quite easily (though he'll never admit it). Courtney is the total opposite. She's top of the class, always first in the queue and seems frightened of absolutely nothing.

On a school trip to the forest, Eddie nearly treads on a snake. Courtney picks it up and strokes it. Later she lets two bumblebees walk across her hand, then throws them at him!

So Eddie and his friends Hat, Molly and Charlene make it their mission to scare her. First it's a horrible rubber snake hidden in her packed lunch. Then it's a tarantula borrowed from the science lab. You can probably guess these plans don't go smoothly (poor Molly).

For most of the way this is more comedy than horror. Every scheme goes wrong in a new and silly way, and Eddie's grumpy voice makes it even funnier. Who hasn't had a classmate who seems to be brilliant at everything?

Hat is a great sidekick. Nobody has ever seen his hair, because he never takes his baseball cap off. Eddie's big brother Kevin calls Eddie Bugs because of his front teeth, and keeps saying "What's up, Doc?".

Hanging over it all is an old local legend. The Mud Monsters are said to rise out of Muddy Creek under a full moon, dripping with mud, and drag people down with them. Eddie's brother is even making a home horror film about them.

There's not much to worry about here. The kids do steal a tarantula and drop it on a classmate's head, and they get into real trouble for it, which is no bad thing to talk about. Eddie also secretly wishes the bees would sting Courtney.

If you've got a reader who's ever been teased for being a scaredy-cat, they'll be rooting for Eddie all the way.

What to read next

And if the bumblebees were their favourite bit, Why I'm Afraid of Bees makes a perfect next read. Gary is twelve and scared of bees more than anything, and his next-door neighbour keeps hives.