The Nightmare Room 11 – Scare School

R. L. Stine's Scare School is a Nightmare Room story for 11 year olds about the worst first day at a new school you could possibly have.

What happens

Sam has been kicked out of his old school for fighting (it wasn't his fault, he says). He's promised his parents he'll keep his temper this time. Then his mum drops him off late, and the new building looks more like a prison than a school.

The corridors are empty. Something darts out of a doorway. It's two or three feet high, green and furry, with a long tail. Then it turns round, and it has a HUMAN face. It points one skinny finger at Sam and whispers that he's It.

And that's just the morning. At lunch his mashed potatoes start crawling with beetles, and then the beetles vanish. Someone has stuck a note under his tray. After school, a girl called Tonya tells him what's going on. An imp lives in the school, everyone's terrified of it (teachers included) and it always goes after the new kid.

Sam decides it's a prank on the new boy. So when he catches the creature stealing his jacket, he fights it. He grabs its tail and pulls. The tail comes off in his hand.

You can probably guess how well that goes down!

It's very hard to put down. The chapters are short and nearly every one ends on a jolt. Sam's voice is quick and a bit prickly. He mutters "sorry, sorry, sorry" at his parents and jokes about getting the word tattooed on his forehead.

What makes it more than a monster story is Sam himself. He can never back down from a fight, and that's exactly what the imp is counting on. There's a real family behind the scares too. His dad wants him to show his class a rare, very valuable rabbit. When Sam refuses, Dad turns up at school with it himself (the last thing a new kid wants).

The frights are the gross, jumpy kind. Bugs in your mouth, spit in your eyes, a creature that threatens Sam's life. If your reader likes a scare they can shake off afterwards, this is a good one.

What to read next

If they want another first-day-of-school chill from the same series, try Locker 13. Luke starts junior high in his lucky shirt with his lucky rabbit's foot, and then finds out which locker he's been given.