The Dummy Meets the Mummy!

Goosebumps SlappyWorld #8

by R.L. Stine

After being put back to sleep and abandoned in an old museum, Slappy is brought to life by a curious girl on a school trip. Out for revenge, Slappy uses his powers to raise an army of creatures from the exhibits. But when the museum closes, Slappy and his new friends are locked inside with Arragatis, an ancient mummy with his own plan for revenge. It's dummy versus mummy as Slappy faces his most dangerous and frightening opponent yet! Can Slappy defeat this ancient adversary? Or will it be a wrap for this dummy?

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Middle Grade, Fantasy, Childrens, Mystery, Chapter Books

142 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 2019

About the author

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...

Reviews

[Justin Tate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Does Slappy finally meet his match when faced with a cursed Egyptian mummy? Will our kid protagonists become collatoral damage when the two powerful monsters collide? Find out here, in this surprisingly first (that I'm aware) Goosebumps versus special. Think Alien VS. Predator.

Long-time Goosebumps readers will be unsurprised when the well-used Slappy tropes appear yet again, but the twist of the extra monster and multiple character point of views give the impending doom a more orchestrated feeling than usual. Stine also seems to be increasingly aware of his adult readers, making a cute Stephen King reference and age joke (the kids call their 36-year-old teacher ancient). Purists will be surprised when Slappy exhibits behaviors more aligned with the movie version than the multiple books, but this is hardly the first time for character inconsistencies to appear and there's always been ambiguity about Slappy's powers (or lack thereof) so it feels refreshing when he does something new. All in all, another delightful entry to SlappyWorld!

[Josiah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overuse of Slappy as the villain is a big factor by this point in the Goosebumps franchise, but R.L. Stine adds a few variations in The Dummy Meets the Mummy! to keep the storyline from going stale. Not only does Slappy battle a classic Goosebumps antagonist, but the parents and kids are on the same page as each other for most of this book; aware that the ventriloquist dummy is alive, they combine their efforts to defeat him. We pick up the story in Cairo, Egypt, where Dr. Richard Klopfer is about to enter the tomb of Arragotus, an Ancient Egyptian mummified 5,000 years ago. Klopfer makes the mistake of reading aloud the inscription on Arragotus's coffin, bringing the mummy to life. Klopfer's assistant saves the day before the mummy can break free to terrorize the world, but Arragotus shows his violent power in the moments before being put back to sleep with the same words that awakened him. At the hospital, a grievously injured Klopfer orders his assistant to get rid of Arragotus's mummified corpse. But where will she send it?

Twelve-year-old Aaron Riggles, a redhead with fair skin and freckles, is pleased when a puppeteer who visits his school gives him an old wooden dummy in a fancy suit. Maybe he can learn to perform using the dummy. The plan goes haywire when Aaron's family realize Slappy is alive, nasty, and dangerous. They trap him inside his heavy wooden box and Aaron's father drives the dummy to the Haunted Horror Museum, where he leaves it on the doorstep without explanation. Arragotus and Slappy have now both been donated to the museum, and twelve-year-old Cathy O'Connor's father is thrilled. He can always use new items for his museum. Cathy's class in school is scheduled for an overnight stay at the facility a few days from now, and her father wants the night to be scary enough so the kids enjoy themselves. Of course, he wasn't counting on his two new exhibits being able to come to life and cause mayhem if particular sets of magic words are read in their presence. By the time Cathy's father recognizes the danger, there's no time to cancel the overnight. He, Cathy, her nine-year-old sister Shannon, and Cathy's friend Logan are the only ones who know there are two monsters in the museum that can be reanimated at any time. When the worst happens and Arragotus and Slappy crash the school party, can the kids be saved from these two forces of evil? What happens if the dummy and the mummy turn their powers on each other?

This isn't a bad book—I'd rate it one and a half stars—but the story could use refining. It's never explained how Arragotus knows Cathy's name, and the ending peters out weakly. I like the idea of a clash between iconic villains, and R.L. Stine once again gives Slappy the enhanced set of powers he didn't possess until many books after his debut in Night of the Living Dummy. I assume this is done to level the playing field between him and Arragotus. SlappyWorld isn't one of the better Goosebumps sub-series, but I enjoy the stories. There will always be demand for R.L. Stine's work.

[Austin Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of the wackier modern day Goosebumps books that I've read. There's not much of a plot, nonexistent character development... but we get to see the DUMMY fight the MUMMY.
And was it a good time? It sure was.

Turn off part of your brain, don't worry about the logic gaps in the story, and you'll have a fun time with this book. It has all the trademark goofiness and silliness "wrapped" up in here, complete with Slappy's witty dialogue and menacing presence.
There's also a good amount of action in here which I really appreciated; this book doesn't tease at all. It was a nice breath of fresh air for the Slappyworld series, despite being a bit burned out on the living dummy thing as a whole.

2.5⭐

[Anthony Blankenship · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lot's of humor and scares. Slappy has become a fan favorite in the Goosebumps world and for good reason. I love that you never get bored with these stories. Fun until the final sentence.

[B.J. Burgess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Whether you're young or old, like me, you're going to enjoy reading Goosebumps SlappyWorld: The Dummy Meets The Mummy!.

The narration is slightly different this time around. There's the normal introduction by "Slappy" himself, a short prologue taking place in Egypt, a four chapter thriller with Slappy terrorizing the Riggles' family, and lastly there's the main tale of the Haunted Horror Museum sleepover. I like way Mr. Stine introduced Aaron first, quickly switched the point-of-view to Cathy, and later brought back Aaron into the fold.

Like all Goosebumps books, the characters here are two-dimensional, except for Slappy who gets all the one-liners. I do realize there are a few adult readers who complain about the characters not having enough depth to them but, hey, it's just a kid's story. These books tend to be under 150 pages and there's just not enough space to expand the characters. For me, the most important part of any good Goosebumps is the actual story!

The Dummy Meets The Mummy! happens to be the best entry in the "SlappyWorld" series, at least so far. It's a little bit more vicious than some of the previous installments and it has more of an old school '90s Goosebumps vibe. There's less laughs and more chills!

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Cathy's dad gets a new mummy for his Haunted Horror Museum, he's over the moon. It's just what his museum needs and it arrives just in time for Cathy's class sleepover. But when Cathy's sister Shannon recites the words written in the coffin, they all receive a shock when the mummy comes to life. Repeating the words puts him back to sleep.

After a creepy dummy shows up, Cathy, her friend Logan, and Shannon all realize that it can talk. Like the mummy, saying a set of words puts the dummy back to sleep. With a scary dummy and a mummy that can go on a rampage at any moment, Cathy is unsure if they should still have the sleepover, but it's too late to change things when everyone arrives. Hopefully, everything can remain safe, but that's almost impossible when Slappy's involved.

With Slappy being my favorite character from Goosebumps, seeing him return in this book made me that much more eager to read it. It was interesting seeing the dummy versus the mummy and I loved it! This book feeds my hunger for horror reads that have lots of twists and turns. Cathy's dad just wants his Horror Museum to be a success, but you should always be careful what you wish for!


Final Verdict: I would recommend this to fans of horror, mummies, Goosebumps, and Slappy the dummy.

This review can also be found on YABC: http://www.yabookscentral.com/kidsfic...

[Elyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of all the Slappyworld books, this one is definitely my favorite. It’s not your typical Goosebumps story in many ways. I was left feeling really impressed, intrigued, and wishing the story was longer. Slappy vs a mummy! What more could you ask for?

[Collins Ezeanyim · Rating 1 out of 5]

There were times when I felt like one of those reaction gifs that feature Jonah Hill exasperatedly pinching the bridge of his nose. Or perhaps the one where Denzel Washington disgustedly throws his glasses away.

I realize that I'm a forty-year-old man reading a book meant for fourth graders but this is tripe should be nonsensical even to them. Even though the original Goosebumps series I loved as a kid varied in quality, they never reached the low levels of quality of these newer books. I don't get it. Stine is capable of much better than this. This is also another egregious recent example where there's no true ending - the book just stops. No twist ending as is common in the original series. Just an ending rebuttal by Slappy where the next chapter should have been.

I've been reading the new Goosebumps to try to wrap myself in childhood nostalgia but this is starting to get painful.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cathy and her friends are looking forward to their special night camping out in her father's Haunted Museum. Especially because of his new exhibit, a mummy straight from Egypt. What they don't discover until too late is that if you say the words inscribed on his sarcophagus, the mummy comes to life - and it violently angry. What's worse, is the infamous ventriloquist dummy Slappy has been left out side the museum and taken in. He too comes to life if you utter his magic phrase. Will it be up to Slappy to save everyone from the mummy, or will Slappy be an even worse problem?
For a Goosebumps book, this one was surprisingly graphic and violent. I guess the more modern ones accept that today's kids are more used to rougher stuff than the generally campy antics of the original books. 3.5/5*

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've reviewed this on my blog now, forgot to log it again until now whoops.

https://spongey444.wordpress.com/2022...

[Clover]

TLDR;
Cathy O’Connor (12), Shannon O’Connor (9), and their cousin Logan (12) are helping set up the museum for their class overnight visit. Colin O’Connor, owns the Haunted Horror Museum, and both of his daughters have grown up in it. It’s “kind of lame” as both girls have “’been there, done that.’” This year, Cathy’s dad has been gifted Arragotus, a real Egyptian mummy that was killed before being crowned prince, and Slappy, a creepy ventriloquist doll that Cathy, Shannon, and Logan know is alive. Shannon accidentally wakes Arragotus and the family thankfully puts him back to sleep right before the class arrives. With a museum full of nosy, skeptical children, what could go wrong? Can a bunch of twelve-year-olds outwit a 5000-year-old mummy and an evil dummy?

This was a fun book, but the ending felt rushed and a cop out. Not Stine’s strongest ending by far, which is disappointing since this book was laid out so nicely with three parts to build up the suspense. I would still read it, but I don’t think I’ll ever stop being frustrated with it.

All the wrapping:
Colin O’Connor “owns the Haunted Horror Museum on Shadow Street” in Timberland Mills, and his twelve-year-old daughter Cathy “think[s] the museum is kind of lame.” Cathy and her nine-year-old sister, Shannon, have “grew up inside it”, and although Shannon “gets excited about things a lot more than [Cathy] does”, they’ve both “’been there, done that.’” That is until her father gets Arragotus—a real Egyptian Mummy—and Slappy—a ventriloquist doll—who “seems to have a long history.”
Cathy’s cousin Logan has come over to help get the museum ready before their class spends the night. Slappy is currently alive because of Aaron Riggles, and Cathy puts him to sleep after reads the magic words. This is, of course, after Slappy has already caused issues and messed up their dad’s office, which creates a domino effect. Shannon unknowingly wakes up Arragotus and the whole family has to work together to get him under wraps. Colin wants to cancel the overnight trip because “[i]f Arragotus wakes up again, he’s too dangerous. It’s too big a risk.” Cathy was disappointed, “[they] all were. But [she] knew he was right.” Alas, the class comes right as the family is deciding this. Everything seems quiet on the home front now, so the night should be fine, right?
The visit goes well until Colin decides to bring out Slappy to keep the children entertained. Ashli steals some of the papers and reads some magic words, but they aren’t for Slappy, they’re for Arragotus. All hell breaks loose in the museum after this. Aaron Riggles has the brilliant idea of waking Slappy: “Maybe Slappy can put the mummy back to sleep.” Cathy sees no other choice. Children are screaming, crying, running, and hiding for their lives. Cathy is trusting Slappy to save them, what could go wrong?

This book was broken into three parts. The first part follows Dr. Richard Klopfer and his assistant Bella Wortham as they uncover Arragotus, a mummy who has “not been disturbed in any way for five thousand years.” Amari, a “man from the Egyptian Science Counsil”, warns Dr. Klopfer: “[Arragotus] is angry. [. . . .] He was never a prince. [H]e was murdered on the morning of his crowning.” Prince or not, angry or not, Dr. Klopfer doesn’t believe in the curse and continues—much to his regret.
The second part starts with Aaron Riggles, who “loves puppets”, and is “dragging a long wooden chest behind [him]. He says how Mandrake the great came to his school to preform with his puppets. After the show, Aaron said how much he loved puppets and Mandrake gifted him this chest. Nice, huh! They find out that there’s a ventriloquist doll in the chest named Slappy. Slappy is already alive, probably because of Mandrake, and instantly starts causing trouble for the Riggles’ family. Aaron’s dad quickly handles Slappy—much to the regret of the O’Connors.
The third part is where we meet Cathy and the rest of the O’Connors and where the first two parts all tie together. We have the backstory for Arragotus and Slappy. We know the characters. We just don’t know how it will end. It was an interesting choice by Stine and I liked it.

I believed this book was pretty solid, until the end. The ending was rushed, unfinished, nothing like R.L. Stine’s typical endings. I was left frustrated and annoyed. That seriously couldn’t happen, right? It wasn’t satisfying and felt like a rip off. I remember liking The Curse of the Mummy (1993) and Return of the Mummy (1994) as a child because I love Egypt, so of course this would be just as satisfying. I liked the reference of Poe and Stephen King, I liked the three-legged dinosaur. All the characters were good. I would love to visit the Haunted Horror Museum! But that ending really put me off.

2.5/5 because the ending tanked the book and frustrated me.

This is Day #11 of my October Goosebumps Challenge.
Day: 11/31
Books: 11/31

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite goosebumps books of all time and i believe the most fun iteration of Slappy ever produced by the mad genius R.L Stine. That guy is 76 and still writing , better then ever. He is a living inspiration, and my hat goes off to him, every few months i'm excited to pick up a new slappysworld book.

So what did i like about this book?
Well i couldn't be permited to say much without first issuing a
(SPOILER ALERT)

So here goes Its awesome to see the heel Slappy turn face (wrestling terminology) and be the good guy for once, or at least the lesser of two evils, or the better the devil you know. You see a side of Slappy that you haven't seen before and its really refreshing to read like taking a swim in the ocean.

Slappy also unveils some awesome magic powers his been keeping underwraps that you haven't seen before. So theirs some nice new dummy material.

In this book Slappy has some cool new lines in it, in my opinion. And doesnt just repeat all that stuff he always does about peoples iq's being their shoe size, and "is that your face or did your neck throw up" So some of my favorite Slappy moments in this book were when he said these little pearls.

"I'm so handsome every time i peek in the mirror the mirror says "thank you" Hahaha"

"It's going to be an educational night", Slappy cried. "Your all going to learn how to obey me! Hahaha"

"We are all in danger. Can you help us ? Please, Slappy. Do something help us. The dummies eyes locked on mine. He didn't reply for a moment. And then he screamed " Are you kidding me? Me help you? "Please Slappy" - I lost it. I grabbed him by the shoulders of his suit jacket and began to shake him "please help us!" " I help myself to whatever i want" he replied "Thats the only kind of helping i ever do! Hahaha"

Overall i rate this book 5 out of 5 stars, i think it is one of the best goosebumps books of all time, it does the most with the main character of the series. Thank you for reading this I hope you enjoy/ed the book as much as i did. R.L Stine brings much happiness onto the world.

[Alejandro Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dumbass Meets Murray after a Diet—featuring LeBron James and a dinosaur from Montana.

Uh… moving on, this book holds up from my original read. It’s no longer one of my all time faves but, let me say, it’s a damn good book for being A, From SlappyWorld, and B, Being a modern Slappy book. Starting with the good shit, I loved the first two segments. Arragotus is the most threatening mummy in all of Goosebumps, with his first appearance potentially involving some bloodshed and him defeating a rather large creature with absolutely no issue (not to mention he can lift heavy stuff with ease). Slappy’s opener was really good and to-the-point, which is bloody rare. Slappy overall was at his peak in the book, minus some cringe lines. I’m not gonna be deducting any points, though, since the audiobook amplifies the cringe by a lot. Anyways, the characters are pretty good; I quite enjoy the father of the Kathy, and the pacing is solid overall. The buildup works well and you get a decently long standoff between you-know-who. The shit that went down in that fight was very fun. Also, the filler, though is still filler, was actually not bad at all; the fake story about the museum was cool. Might I add the setting adds a whole point, very nice. As for issues, minus the cringe Slappy lines, I only find the final battle a little weird since it didn’t need to happen. Like, instead of doing the thing they did, they should’ve used the ‘on/off’ switch (if ya know what I mean) in the other room when that certain walking corpse was potentially not walking. I love evading spoilers. Ending was ass, per usual lol. That’s about it. 9/10, a fun book that even starred the one and only LeBron… don’t ask me where Stine got the name for that kid. Murray done obtained a choking fetish after Hotel Transylvania 4.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Goosebumps when I was in grade school. I remember getting big stacks of them from the book orders. I've been trying to read most of the books I put out into my class library and this happened to be the most recent Goosebump book I obtained, so I decided to revisit the past.

Slappy has never been my favorite in the series, but since it was the one I had I went with it. I've never read any of the "SlappyWorld" series before.

After reading so many Newberry books and then reading this one, I have to say it's pretty obvious why kids like this series more than the "serious" children's literature. In a word, it's FUN. Within the first couple mins a mummy is coming to life and ripping someone's face off. (All in a kid friendly way, of course.) Slappy pukes green guts all over things, there's an epic sleepover in a haunted horror museum, and the mummy and Slappy have a great duel. It's the junk food of books and it's fabulous. The Newberry books are not going to get reluctant children to read, but books like this one are.

I liked the audio. Slappy has a very creepy voice. The story was ridiculous but highly enjoyable.

[eriCLOVE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ding dong ditch your Mummy and Dummy.

This story was one of the SlappyWorld stories that was highly recommended to me. I enjoyed it more than the past few I've read, but I'm still stuck with my main critique of "if you think too hard about it, you're gonna have a bad time."

The Haunted Horror Museum was a missed opportunity to reference some of the past Goosebumps items/monsters. It would've been a fun inside joke if the audience really knew what those "lame" junky items were.

The story itself didn't leave me bored and held my attention fine. I'm used to Goosebumps endings feeling abrupt, but this one really leaves you in the air. Meh. It's fun. Memorable. Not sure if I'd come back to it. I'd like to see more of Slappy going up against other monsters.

[[Why are there so many references to Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King? And why have I read them in statue form twice now?]]

4 "Should've shaved before work!" out of 5 "I'll eat your heart like a meatball."

[Sky read · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was pretty gruesome for a kids book at the beginning but after that I don’t think anything in it would scare a child.
The book left me with a few questions
#1. Why was the mummy saying Cathy name? It literally never goes back to explain that.
#2. What happened with all the bugs and slappy at the end?
#3. Why did Aaron’s dad bring the puppet to the museum and still let his son go to spend the night at the museum the very next day??
And
#4. did the children need therapy after this? Lol jk
But this book was ok it really sucked you in when you started reading it
I just don’t like how it leaves you wondering about a lot of stuff.

Also on a good note the book was very well written.

[Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most fun ones in this series so far. The story does things somewhat different than you're standard goosebumps book which is really cool and well done. Slappy gets a bunch of clever one liners which is neat. And an incredibly cool location of a spooky museum with a near ending as well. But the main two siblings are quite boring. I do like Logan who is a pretty fun character. I also like there dad and Aaron in the book too. Just the main two are quite boring.
And it dosent make much since how they find the words to make slappy stop moving early on in the book.

[Jamie Uribe · Rating 5 out of 5]

So this book comes in parts it tells you about Arragotus and then it tells you about Slappy.

So the first part of this I was thinking wow this is like the movie The Mummy. And gets you into Egypt.

Then you jump into a town where we meet with Slappy. And wow let me tell you that stuff that comes out if his mouth wouldn't want to be caught in that.

So when you jump to the haunted Museum we'll your in for a ride. Oh and remember don't call Slappy dummy.......

[Sandra Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slappy, the evil dummy, has been dumped at a horror museum, where an old mummy from Egypt has arrived. What kind of chaos can a dummy and a mummy create?

First, the mummy comes alive, scaring everyone. Well, of course! Then the mummy goes to sleep as soon as the class arrives to the museum for a sleepover. What made the kids think that the dummy would help them with the mummy? What a horror-filled night! A fun read!

[Amber Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

No. No. This is a book about an evil, living ventriloquist dummy and an evil, living mummy who are fighting it out in an a creepy little museum while surrounded by kids on an overnight school trip. And it is AWFUL. The only thing that entertained me was this line: "I hid one of the amber stones between Stephen King's legs." You damned sure did!

[Joseph D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

SlappyWorld strikes again. This one starts off more gorey than any of the previous novels. However, it does settle down after that into a normal Goosebumps tale. As with the others in the series, it is stand alone. ​ Enjoy but be forewarned about the beginning.

Joseph McKnight
http://www.josephmcknight.com

[Flora · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who has been pondering "what would I do if I were in a Night of the Living Dummy Situation" seriously from the age of 5, I appreciate the modern complication of having to convince others that the talking ventriloquist dummy doesn't just have some kind of voice recognition technology in it

[Courtney Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Goosebumps. One of R.L Stine's better books to date as the plot is sustained and there are some good turns, twists and frights. Would recommend for little ones looking for a scare. Great mummy!

[Rafay Shiraz]

Best book ever!!!!! Especially slappy

[Noah Kenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good but not the best.

[Kenneth BLANCK · Rating 5 out of 5]

ONE OF MY FAVS FROM HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIM! You might think that SLAPPY is the most powerful evil thing in spirt... But after reading this... I belive that it is the MUMMY!

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slappy's dialogue in this series is getting really annoying, but I loved the plot of this one.

[ᥫ᭡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very similar to Slappy and his bride, but with a mummy & non-marriage relations. Just mummy vs. dummy!

[Savannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute preteen book, but I wish the ending had a better twist

[MisterT · Rating 1 out of 5]

Silly stuff happens but you don’t really care because you don’t care one bit about any of the characters. I know it’s for juveniles, but still. Have more respect for the kids. Dnf.