R.L. Stine's Phantom of the Auditorium (Goosebumps Series)

You want to talk about ending the year with a GREAT BOOK!! Last week I started one of my favorite books, Phantom of the Auditorium by R.L Stine. Let me just tell you that I bartered with a fourth grader to get this book back in my library!! I first started reading this book in 2001. I came across it a school library and figured since I loved R.L. Stine when I was growing up, my students would enjoy it too. MY STUDENTS LOVED IT!! And I read it every year after that......until it finally fell to pieces and could no longer be taped back together. Every year I read this book, it got passed around the classroom by almost every student. They all wanted to read it again. I even had a few parents request to read it because their child talked about it so much!! Well in 2008, my poor little book had been passed aound so much that it just gave out and fell apart. I took this great book for granted and figured that once it was totally damaged I would just order another. WRONG!!! When I went to order a replacement, it was out of print! I searched every online bookstore and could not find it at the time. I searched for a few days and then just gave up. I started reading a new book in its place but it wasn't the same. Fast forward to April of 2012....I walk into a teachers classroom and the pink part of the cover and purple writing catches my eye. I asked her if that was The Phantom. She had never really noticed the book before, it was her son's. I immediately pick the book up and low and behold, it was THE PHANTOM. I first ask her to borrow the book and of course that wasn't a problem. Then I remembered how hard it was for me to find the book so I turned my inch into a yard and asked her if I could HAVE it. Of course that wasn't her decision to make so she directed me to her son. To make a long story short, after her son spent about 15 minutes picking through my class library....the book was MINE!

I started talking about the book with my students and told them how much I LOVED it. But I always do this before I read a book. I showed them the book, read the back, and got them all excited about hearing our new story. I made it known that this book is an exclusive read aloud meaning, after I read it goes back on my desk and not on the chalkboard (the students can't read ahead or choose this book for reading concentration). Don't you know the next day when I started reading it one of my students brought in a copy of the book from his local library and started reading along with us during the read aloud (I let that slide)!! Then the next day, another student also found a copy in our school library and he brought that copy in. The book got so interesting for my students and they are enjoying it so much, that I actually started taking the "floating" copies of the book away from them after I read a few chapters each day. They were good sports about it. I did this because I love the excitement and anticipation that they have for the morning read aloud. Not that they weren't looking forward to hearing the other stories that I've shared in the past but at the end of the read aloud for The Phantom they start chanting READ IT! READ IT! READ IT!! They beg to borrow the book, they write longer than usuall in their reading logs, they talk about it with a great sense of eagerness! I just wanted to preserve the moment and I want them all to share it together instead of allowing them to read ahead. Now I am in search  mode for the movie, I love watching the movie after the book (just so I can prove that the book is always better!).

While reading a few chapters today (some of them are really short), one of my students informed me that this reminds him of how when he enters his house after school, the first thing he does is check for vampires! (teachable moment: text to self connection!)

I did a search today and saw that there are actually some used AND NEW copies on Amazon.com! If you are interested in buying a copy, you might want to hurry up!

DOWNLOAD HERE!