Interesting! One day in Montreal, I'm thinking maybe in 2,001 or 2,002 though I'm not quite sure, out teenage foster son brought a friend home from school. They played video games, and he joined us for dinner. As soon as he left, our kid shared some news that he had evidently been busting to share.

"Guess what? Arnie was in Goosebumps! But he doesn't like to tell a lot of people. He says it makes them treat him funny. But isn't that cool?"

Our kid was already into Harry Potter by then, but Goosebumps was a big, big deal for him, and the fact that his buddy had played a couple minor supporting roles in the series a few years before was was a super big deal.

I read a couple of Stine's books and watched a couple TV episodes at our kid's enthusiastic insistence. He got bored fast, because he was already a teenager and it wasn't as interesting to him as he remembered from when he was 11 or so.

But I was impressed with Stine's work. I loved how he made his characters real and fantastical at the same time, while seeming to appeal to the better angels of human nature.

Interesting to read your thoughts about the reboot!