The book that got me started in horror was Night of the Living Dummy. R. L. Stine is such a master of horror he can inspire nightmares and chills without resorting to graphic, bloody tropes and keep his books for young adults. There’s a collection of his books on my books shelf and can’t wait to read them with my son.

When twins Lindy and Kris find a ventriloquist’s dummy in a Dumpster, Lindy decides to “rescue” it, and she names it Slappy. But Kris is green with envy. It’s not fair. Why does Lindy get to have all the fun and all the attention? Kris decides to get a dummy of her own. She’ll show Lindy. Then weird things begin to happen. Nasty things. Evil things. It can’t be the dummy causing all the trouble, Can it?