This is a modern retelling of Dickens A Christmas Carol, R.L Stine style.

It has a bit of a different feel than most of his work, but his signature is still there. It's great.......a fun take on an old story.......a fabulous way to instill the meaning of friendship and kindness in children while keeping it light.

I recommend this for R.L Stine lovers young and old! ( )

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.

This review also appears at the Mini Book Bytes Book Review Blog. ( )

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.

R.L. Stine is back with another one of his creepy tales!

Twelve-year-old Rick Scroogeman hates Christmas, and he lets everyone around him know it. He thinks his jokes are funny, but the kids at school find him completely annoying and just plain cruel. With the holidays approaching, Rick's antics get worse and worse until one day, he gets a taste of his own medicine.....the R.L. Stine way. This was a great twist on the Dickens classic for middle grade readers. I loved that the characters' last names referenced other works of Dickens.

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A modern updating of A Christmas Carol set in a middle school. Rick Scroogeman is mean and always hurting others (physically and emotionally). The three ghosts come and visit him and show him the past, the present, and the future. He is shocked by others' behavior/actions/thoughts because he sees it all as good clean fun. Like all good Christmas Carols, good wins out but what a path is follows.

I enjoyed the story. I appreciate how bullying was incorporated into the story without it being preachy but teaching the lesson. The characters were good and believable. This is a keeper. ( )