Book Review: 'Young Scrooge: A Very Scary Christmas Story' by R. L. Stine

✰✰✰½  Rick Scroogeman thinks he's the life of the party. He likes to joke around with his friends, but can't understand why they don't appreciate his humor. That's because Rick is a twelve-year-old bully. He thinks teasing his fellow classmates at Oliver Twist Middle school is funny just as long as the joke's on them.

Rick doesn't tolerate it when other people tease him. Take Christmas, for example. Every year the other kids get their chance to get back at Rick when the class watches the classic old movie, A Christmas Carol. All the kids start calling him Scrooge, and Rick gets all prickly about it.

This year Rick is ready to retaliate with even more teasing. What he doesn't know is that things are going to be different. Just like in the movie, Rick is haunted by three ghosts who whisk him away to different eras and try to teach him a lesson. Will Rick change his bullying ways, or is he a lost cause? Only time will tell as Rick tries get back to his family in time to celebrate Christmas.

The Bottom Line: This ghostly retelling of a holiday classic (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens) features a scary twist with a modern lesson to learn. Middle grade readers will identify with the characters on both sides of the bullying issue. Recommended seasonal reading for young fans of horror.

Details: Young Scrooge: A Very Scary Christmas Story by R. L. Stine. hardcover published by Square Fish in 2016. 208 p. ISBN: 978-1-250-12955-0