Goosebumps author adapts texts to remove weight, mental health and ethnicity references | Ents & Arts News

The author of the popular children’s book series Goosebumps tweaked more than a dozen titles to remove or change references to mental health, ethnicity and weight.

After JK Rowling Harry Potter, Goosebumps It is the second best-selling book series in the world.

Having sold more than four million copies a month, publisher Scholastic has re-released the children’s horror novels as edited e-books, according to The Times, amid ongoing controversies. controversy over censorship in publication.

Author RL Stine has made over 100 edits to his original works, with examples including characters now described as “fun” instead of “full”.

Mentions of perpetrators turning victims into “slaves” have also been removed.

While the word “crazy” has also been swapped for “silly” and other alternatives, The Times reported.

Goosebumps’ first book was published in 1992. The series includes works such as Welcome to the House of Death and Away from the Basement.

Changes to the original text came shortly after Rishi Sunak condemns Roald Dahl .’s rewriting of children’s books.

The Prime Minister cited the Friendly Giant’s warning not to be “gobbled up” with words, in condemning the move also seen by author Sir Salman Rushdie as “unreasonable censorship”.

Copies of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels have also been revised to remove some race-related content and will be re-released later this year.

The description of ‘At least six chins’ has changed

Mr. Stine, 79, from Ohio, USA, originally published 62 books in the Goosebumps series. In 2015, it was adapted to the screen, in a movie starring Jack Black, with a sequel in 2018.

The Times reports that in a story about aliens abducting large people and eating them, a character is described as having “at least six chins” now “at least 6 feet 6”. “.

In another book, references to the wolf’s whistle were removed, while in another character descriptions such as “bowling ball” and “squirrel cheek” were removed.

Multiple mentions of the word “crazy” have also been deleted throughout the series. Alternative words include “silly”, “wild”, “scary”, “insane” and “tense”. The term “a real nut” is now “a real wild one” and “nutcase” is “odd”.

The adaptations are said to be part of an e-book re-release that began in 2018.

The Times said Stine and Scholastic did not respond to requests for comment.