R.L. Stine Accuses Publisher of Censoring Goosebumps Books without Permission

Certain titles from the Goosebumps anthology, second only to the Harry Potter books in terms of popularity, have been re-released as sanitized e-books by Scholastic, a new report from The Times has revealed. The move comes after huge controversy enveloped the British publisher of Roald Dahl’s books for hundreds of similar changes, leading the publisher to agree to continue printing the original versions alongside the new bowdlerized editions.

While The Times originally claimed Stine, 79, had agreed to the changes, the author denied he had ever approved them on Monday afternoon.

“I’ve never changed a word in Goosebumps. Any changes were never shown to me,” Stine explained on Twitter.

One Goosebumps character is now “cheerful” instead of “plump.” Elsewhere the word “crazy” has been changed to “silly.” And a character who dressed as a “dark and stormy night” for Halloween now no longer wears black face paint.

More than a hundred edits have been made to the books, which were first published in the 1990s and sold four million copies a month at the height of their success.

Not what he meant by "you choose the scare", I imagine.