R. L. Stine’s Welcome to Dead House is a creepy Goosebumps story for 8 year olds about a family who move into a free house nobody has lived in for a while.<\/p>\n
Amanda is twelve and her brother Josh is eleven. Dad has been left a big old house by a great-uncle none of them can remember. It’s in a town called Dark Falls, and it really is dark. Dead leaves cover the front garden in the middle of July.<\/p>\n
Josh hates it on sight. Amanda quite likes her new room (it has a window seat!). Then she sees a blond boy standing in her doorway. He’s gone a second later, and the estate agent laughs and says no ghost comes with the house.<\/p>\n
Their little dog Petey doesn’t like the estate agent one bit. He growls at him, then bolts off and leads Josh on a chase through the cemetery.<\/p>\n
Amanda tells the story, so you’re right there with her as the odd things pile up. Curtains billow at a window that’s shut. Whispering comes from an empty cupboard. A strange girl smiles down from the landing, and nobody else ever seems to see anything. Isn’t that the worst feeling, when the grown-ups just won’t believe you?<\/p>\n
There’s plenty of brother-and-sister bickering to break it up. Josh’s idea of a joke is creeping up behind her and grabbing her shoulder. She gets him back by lying very still on the floor with her head hidden in the wardrobe.<\/p>\n
It’s worth knowing this one is properly spooky, and that’s only the first few chapters. Amanda has a nightmare where the whole family are skulls sitting round the dinner table, eating bones off their plates.<\/p>\n
A reader who’s jumpy at bedtime might want this as a daytime book. If your reader likes being scared and then laughing about it, they’ll race through it.<\/p>\n
For another Goosebumps family with a secret in the house, try Stay Out of the Basement. Margaret and Casey’s dad is a plant scientist who won’t let anyone see what he’s growing downstairs, and he’s starting to act very strangely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
R. L. Stine’s Welcome to Dead House is a creepy Goosebumps story for 8 year olds about a family who move into a free house nobody has lived in for a while. Amanda is twelve and her brother Josh is eleven. Dad has been left a big old house by a great-uncle none of them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13691,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":13694,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Stay Out of the Basement","lr_seo_hook":"A boy at the window, whispers in the cupboard, and nobody believes Amanda.","lr_series_id":135,"lr_series_name":"Goosebumps","lr_series_position":1,"lr_series_label":""},"book_tag":[1051],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[811],"class_list":["post-13692","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-scary-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-r-l-stine"],"yoast_title":"Goosebumps 1 – Welcome to Dead House by R. L. Stine | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A boy at the window, whispers in the cupboard, and nobody believes Amanda. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n