Welcome To Dead House (Goosebumps)

published	2007 by Scholastic Paperbacks
binding	Paperback
isbn	054501316X (isbn13: 9780545013161)
pages	144
description	Just when you thought it was safe....the 25 top-selling titles in the series that revolutionized horror for kids are back w/ a fresh new look. The up...more [close] Just when you thought it was safe....the 25 top-selling titles in the series that revolutionized horror for kids are back w/ a fresh new look. The updated design will make you scream. The original artwork will give you nightmares. And the classic bone-chilling stories from the master of horror will just kill you. This spine-tingling series sparked a licensing phenomenon & made R.L. the #1 author in the U.S.--and it's STILL the "must have" collection for true horror fans. Now a whole new generation will discover the thrill of reading ...and they'll never be the same again. [close]
date added	02-26-07 edit book

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Firas rated it:

(review of isbn 0439568471)

01/24/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: grade5-7

Plot Outline
Amanda Benson, twelve –year old, and her younger brother, eleven-year-old Josh, are moving with their parents to a new neighbourhood called Dark Falls. Although Dark Falls is no more than four hours away from their old home, Amanda and Josh are very upset about the moving. Perhaps this is because the move happens rather suddenly. Only a week before, their father received a letter from a lawyer informing him that he had inherited a huge old house from a great uncle named Charles. ...more Plot Outline
Amanda Benson, twelve –year old, and her younger brother, eleven-year-old Josh, are moving with their parents to a new neighbourhood called Dark Falls. Although Dark Falls is no more than four hours away from their old home, Amanda and Josh are very upset about the moving. Perhaps this is because the move happens rather suddenly. Only a week before, their father received a letter from a lawyer informing him that he had inherited a huge old house from a great uncle named Charles. Nobody in the Benson family can remember this particular relative, but that doesn't stop Mr. and Mrs. Benson from feeling elated about the unexpected news. Mr. Benson had been looking for a way to quit his boring office job and pursue his true love, writing, for a long time, and the inheritance provides just the opportunity. The couple does not hesitate to pack up all their belongings and make the necessary arrangements to relocate.
When the family takes their first trip to Dark Falls to meet with the real estate agent, Compton Dawes, and view their new home, only the two children and their dog, Petey, immediately sense that something is not quite right. Despite the fact that it is the middle of July, the entire neighbourhood seems covered in an artificial darkness created by massive, overhanging tree limbs. Dead brown leaves, shade, and shadows are everywhere. Then there's the house itself, which obviously was not constructed any time in the recent past. It is an enormous, dark, antique structure with two big bay windows on the second floor that look eerily like a pair of observing eyes. While Josh proceeds to impatiently whine in protest over the latest tragic development in his life, Amanda watches with amazement as a boy appears suddenly in the doorway of her new room and disappears suddenly.
Amanda feels much better after seeing her room. She goes outside to tell Josh about it, but he is gone. They find him a little while later in the cemetery...being chased by someone. Amanda keeps seeing other kids in her home and hearing strange sounds. And, the friends she makes all seem a little different. It turns out that the children are all dead, having been murdered when they lived in that house. Once a year, they must have the blood from a freshly killed person to sustain their "living dead" existence for another year. The dead group of children kill Petey the dog because they believe that “dogs always know .Dogs always recognize the living dead. That’s why they have to go first.” .One of the kids, Ray, attacks Amanda in the cemetery while her brother Josh was a bit far still looking for the dog, but Josh saves her at the last moment when he shines his light on Ray’s face which causes him to melt and become a pile of bones. Amanda and Josh succeed to run home but at home they are attacked by the dead children who explain that there is no great- dead uncle and that entire letter sent to their parents was a trick to bring the Benson family to Dark Falls. “This is the dead house...Once a year, you see, we need new blood, “the dead children say, as they move forward to kill Amanda and Josh. Suddenly Mr. Dawes,the real estate agent , appears at the door and the dead children vanish. He tells them that he has already saved their parents from the dead people and that he will take them to join their parents. While on their way with Mr. Dawes in the cemetery Josh tells Amanda to look at one of the gravestones where she reads the name of Mr.Dawes in scripted. They realize that Mr. Dawes is one of the dead people and that he is leading them to their death. When they confront him with the truth, Mr. Dawes explains that long ago the whole town was intoxicated with a yellow gas from its plastics factory and that every one died but later Dark Falls became the town of living dead. Josh succeeds to kill the already dead Mr. Dawes with a blow of his flashlight on Mr. Dawes forehead and then the two children rush to save their parents. Their mom and dad are imprisoned in an amphitheatre shielded by a huge tree and located at the end of the cemetery. The dead people are all there waiting to kill them and drink their blood. Amanda and Josh move the tree that shields the amphitheatre which makes the bright sunlight pour into the amphitheatre. The dead people melt as soon as the sunlight catches them. Amanda and Josh save their parents and as the family is leaving the dead house they meet on the driveway a new family coming to move to the house, and the surprise is that Mr. Dawes is there to meet the newcomers.

Characters
The main characters in the book are Amanda and her brother Josh.
Amanda, the narrator is a tall, thin and dark twelve-year old girl proves to be more patient than Josh in many instances in the book. Although she is unhappy about her parent’s decision to move to the new house in Dark Falls town, and despite her immediate scare of the house when she first sees it, she tries her best to please her parents and to give the house a chance.”Let go, Josh, we promised we’d give Dark Falls a chance, remember?” she tells her brother when he refuses to get into the new house. She is also more sensible, accepting at the start to see the house and admitting that it has many advantages over her old house being much bigger with large ,beautiful bedrooms. She is also reasonable when she decides, after seeing strange persons in her bedroom, that she is imagining and that”Maybe Mom and Dad were right. We were letting our imaginations run away with us.” When Amanda finds an outfit laid for her over her bed, she convinces herself that it must be her mother who pulled the clothes out. She tells herself: “Calm down, Amanda, calm down. Of course Mom put them there.” Although she is sensible, Amanda has a lot of imagination. She thinks when she glances up to the second floor of the new house:”There were two large windows side by side up there. They looked like two dark eyes staring back at us.”
Amanda is a good sister and a nice daughter. When her brother, Josh disappears suddenly she becomes very worried and doesn’t stop to look for him until she finds him. She risks her life at the end of the story to save her parents who were imprisoned by the living dead people. Amanda is intelligent with some good ideas and sound decisions. When she hears at night whispers in her room and notices that the room is cold, she checks the curtains, and as she finds them fluttering at the window ,she concludes that what she is hearing as whispers must be the sound of the fluttering curtains caused by an opened window. She is able to make a reasonable decision in the scariest situation and succeeds to save her parents. “What are we going to do?”Josh asks desperately when he watches the dead people preparing to kill his parents.”I suddenly knew what we were going to do. It just came to me....We are going to push this tree over so the sunlight will fill the amphitheatre.” Amanda decides. She is so strong willed that she continues to push the tree, with Josh’s help, till it breaks.
Josh looks physically like Amanda. He is tall, thin and dark with brown eyes. He is stubborn and impatient, as Amanda describes at the beginning of the story, when he refuses to go in the new house.”We hadn’t even gone inside and Josh was trying to drag Dad back to the car.”, Amanda says.’ “I am staying outside.’ Josh insists. When their dog, Petey disappears Josh insists to go to look for him, though it was after midnight because he is convinced he will find him in the cemetery. “Amanda, I know he is. And I’m going to go get him whether you come or not. You coming or not.” Josh insists and repeats...Josh is so stubborn that he overcomes his fears and ignores the threats of Ray ,the dead living boy who watches him, and goes to the cemetery at night to find his lost dog, Josh is courageous because he saves Amanda in the cemetery when the Ray is about to kill her.”Josh, frozen in horror, somehow held the light steady.”Come on, Amanda, come on!”Josh shouted.”He grabbed my hand and tried to pull me away.’ Also he proves to be brave when he hits Mr. Dawes with his flashlight. He is loyal to his family, his sister and his dog and does anything to save them when they are in danger.

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Welcome To Dead House (Goosebumps)

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