Goosebumps

Jack has found a new future career.  He wants to be a writer.

For now...

He is obsessed with the book series Goosebumps and so far owns about 75 of RL Stine's masterpieces.  Which is scarier than the plots themselves bc I think he wrote upwards of 800.  Or at least it feels that way.  At first I thought this was a phase, and it could still be considering it's only been a few months, but he LOVES reading them.  He reads on the way to school, at school, and on the way home.  He will sometimes read at night before bed but since he shares a room with Charlie now (more on that later) we can't let him stay up reading.

For the last two months of school, Jack has been bringing home original stories that he and his friend Ryder create in class and then reads them aloud to everyone. 

Now keep in mind, since his inspiration for writing is kid-grade horror stories, there is a lot of blood, violence, and strange creatures.  At first I was wondering if we needed to invest in some therapy (especially after the third "friend" of his main character was stabbed) but was assured by most everyone that this is normal.  Probably the only thing more troublesome to me than the plot material is his spelling.  We definitely need a little work on that :)  But he is 2nd grade after all.

I think my favorite part of all of this is his illustrations :)

And how his characters talk to each other in such a casual, sometimes sarcastic manner (gee I wonder where he gets that...)

At the end of each story, he gives you a little preview of what the next book will be.  For example, the next installment is called "Fere Me" (Fear Me.)  About a killer clown?  Not sure.  However, most of these are labelled as "special editions" which cracks me up :)
 

Jack said that to really be the next RL Stine, he needed a typewriter.  Well, we are not millennial hipsters so instead we opted on letting him claim my old Toshiba laptop and he's been working on his next masterpiece, "Death Mystery."  Another perk of this part?  It has spell check :)  Needless to say, every single one of these books is going in his keepsake box.  This has been one of my favorite Jack moments, I have to say.  I love when they experiment with their interests and I can only hope that this love of reading and writing continues for some time after (like his whole life?) :)