Field of Screams

Ghosts of Fear Street #22

by R.L. Stine, P. MacFearson

Somehow, Buddy Sanders has been zapped back 50 years--to take over the body of Shadyside's greatest baseball player ever. But Buddy has a problem--he knows everyone on his team dies in a horrible accident after the championship game. If Buddy can't change history, he and the rest of the team are going to be history.

Genres: Horror

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

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Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Field Of Screams from the Ghost's Of Fear Street series is a unique one.I never read this book as a kid,but I am slightly nostalgic for it.I remember going to a flea market and first discovering these books.I remember seeing this cover thinking how colorful it was but never wanting to read it because it was a sports story and I really don't like sports stories.The story follows a kid named Buddy Sanders.He loves baseball but hates losing and his team always loses.Just once he would like to be on a team that wins.One day he is with his friend Eve and they are practicing.Eve is bad to ,but Buddy is trying to teach her.Buddy hits a ball across the neighbors yard so he decides to go get it.The house that the ball lands in looks very scary and Buddy doesn't wanna go get it but he does.He crawls through a fence and goes under the porch to retrieve his ball when he's yanked out by an old man.The man lifts Buddy up with one arm and he demands to know why he's here.Buddy explains he's just trying g to get his ball.The man starts talking about baseball and how Shadyside use to have such a good team.He brings out an old photo album and shows Buddy the players from long ago in 1947.Earnie reveals that the team was called the Doom Squad and they dominated.But their luck ran out one day after they lost a game.They were on the bus ride home and the bus stalled out on train tracks and it took the lives of all of the people on board.Earnie asks Buddy what is the one thing he could have and of course he says to play on a good baseball team.Earnie simply goes inside and Buddy leaves.He runs into Eve and a cop that she called because he was taking along time.Buddy explains what went on.The cops are skeptical because apparently nobody has lived in that house in years.They go to a baseball game and Buddy ends up getting hit in the head with a baseball.When he wakes up he is in 1947.He has to deal with all of the old customs like big cars,no tvs and weird plain uniforms and things like that.It doesn't take long for Buddy to realize he traded body's with another Buddy.His names Buddy Gibson.He is living with a coach and his son named Boog.There is some tension there as the dad seems to prefer Buddy over his own son ,because he is the star athelete.Buddy has to figure put how to get home and he thinks that's preventing the bus crash.It does get a little confusing when Buddy sees something in his closet,that claims it is coming for him when it gets stronger.I enjoyed Field Of Screams.It was a little predictable and I didn't love the baseball stuff,but I did enjoy the creepy scenes.I wish we got to explore Fear Street in the past a bit more.I give Field Of Screams a three out of five stars.

[Matias · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aunque no soy fan de temática de béisbol, el libro trata sobre viajes en el tiempo y el destino que podría tener o no un pequeño equipo de una escuela, donde tienen que enfrentar el destino o cambiarlo. Que pasará? Leerlo. Es buenísimo!

[Aurora Dimitre · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ghosts of Fear Street books are always fun--this one was no exception. Even tho it didn't have the nostalgia factor most RL Stine books have, it was enjoyable, with a twist that was.... actually kind of nice.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

P. Macfearson’s second and only other book in the GoFS series turned out to be a home-run compared to the previous one. Field of Screams is a doozy of a read that is reminiscent of The Twilight Zone; this one relies more on Sci-Fi than the legitimate supernatural (though there are spooky elements in here) and mainly dabbles in time travel. I really liked the characters in this one and the writing was quite good. The slight character arc we get with Boog denied a potential downside with repetitive bullying in favor a likable character who evolves to encompass team spirit and respect for the main, which was small but awesome to see as it’s super rare. The story is decently engaging and it felt like we got what was promised with no disappointment, there’s some nice sequences and tension throughout, the inclusion of the real (spoiler) Buddy Gibson in the second-half was welcome and made sense/added some more interesting stuff for the story to sink its teeth into, and the ending is really nice. It’s just an inoffensive GoFS that I really enjoyed, albeit (here we go) super sports heavy. I’m not big on sport books as I have just about as much interest in sports as I do in tasting sewage water. I don’t even know how baseball works, if you catch my drift. It definitely hindered my enjoyment a bit but I was still able to come out of this one pretty happy with it. There’s also some loose ends with the expositional character that was Ernie, and I would’ve liked us to see them again at the end, if even possible, just to bring things full circle. The story is pretty vague in its “whys” of what happened which was fine but didn’t really help me understand why any of the events in the book actually happened. The book also doesn’t quite reach full potential. Overall, 7.5/10. It’s a really solid entry that I didn’t have much issue with, unlike House of a Thousand Screams (‘Fearson’s other volume for the series). By golly, I’m almost done with this series as it is now… shit.

[Greg Kerestan · Rating 2 out of 5]

So little horror, so much baseball... I can't help but wonder if this was a standalone baseball period piece lazily retrofitted into a Ghosts of Fear Street story. The horror and sci-fi elements disappear for long stretches as baseball and 1940s culture take the focus. So why two stars? Frankly, P. MacFearson is a better writer than Stine, so his baseball elements are less cringey that his genre moments.

[Paul Lê · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was led to believe this would have more of a twist ending, but a twist would imply something surprising happened. Not to say the outcome was bad; it's a lot happier than how these books usually end. Anyway, Field of Screams is a decent time-travel story for kids. It's like Quantum Leap if there was a "ghost" trying to stop Sam Beckett from getting home. The author's commentary about the differences between 1948 and the present day is amusing.

[Bárbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una lectura corta, pero que para saborearla como se merece un genio de la talla de Stine, elegí leer de forma lenta. Las emociones que evoca volver a leer algo de esta colección son impagables. Como plus, la historia en sí resulta súper entretenida y atrapante.

[Lolo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Siempre son buenos los libros con viajes en el tiempo

[Yeon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ý tưởng du hành thời gian của tập này cũng khá ổn áp.

[Milo]

Mi primer novelita de terror, puerta de entrada a R. L. Stine, quién luego serviría de puerta a mi género aún hoy.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found it hard to get into this book because it largely focusses on baseball, and we don’t really play that over here in the UK. Put simply, the story follows a young baseball player who wants to play with the best team ever, and ends up finding himself transported through time and playing with a field of ghosts. There’s more to it than that, but that’s enough for you to get the gist.

It was an okay read, but not the best, and I don’t think I’d recommend it unless you’re an American.

[Xion]

it would be easier to read if you rnose was not in the air.r.l. stine is a much better author than king