About the Author

R.L. Stine has more than 350 million English language books in print, plus international editions in 32 languages, making him one of the most popular children's authors in history. Besides Goosebumps, R.L. Stine has written other series, including Fear Street, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room, and Dangerous Girls. R.L. Stine lives in New York with his wife, Jane, and his Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Minnie. Visit him online at rlstine.com.

Trip Park grew up in Ithaca, New York, and went to college at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was first drawn to advertising. He then moved to Chicago, later New York, where he joined advertising agencies and worked on kids' favorites including Cap'n Crunch, Gatorade, Kellogg's, and Ronald McDonald. His children's commercials have won numerous awards. But advertising also brought something equally as rewarding. There he got to work with some of his favorite illustrators. Watching these artists create their pieces inspired Trip Park to try his hand at illustrating himself.

Trip Park has illustrated a number of children's books including Gopher Up Your Sleeve, written by Tony Johnston, Trout, Trout, Trout! (A Fish Chant) and Ant, Ant, Ant! (An Insect Chant), both written by April Pulley Sayre. He has also developed characters and helped animate commercials for Nickelodeon, The California State Fair, Lego, and many others. When Rotten School came along, the opportunity to translate to the drawing board R.L. Stine's cast of kids was a wonderful chance to combine his love for children's illustration with this group of rotten students. His work can be seen at www.tripparkproductions.com.

Trip lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife, Laura and four children.

Reviews

With a cast of characters who prefer tricks to treats, R.L. Stine kicks off the paper-over-board Rotten School series: #1 The Big Blueberry Barf-Off! and #2 The Great Smelling Bee, illus. by Trip Park (see Children's Audio below). Park's madcap cartoons of freckle-face, bespectacled narrator Bernie Bridges (aka "Big B") and his buds Belzer, Feenman and Crench combined with Stine's wacky dialogue result in a kind of Fat Albert dynamics that will make kids want to visit this boarding school again and again. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Gr 3-5-This second installment in the series will suit those who find merriment in bodily functions run amok. A promising preface presents befuddled Headmaster Upchuck's morning announcements, which cover the Armpit Band tryouts, a tattoo exhibition, and an explanation of a poster misprint regarding the school's spelling bee. However, the quirky charm disappears with the know-it-all narration of Bernie Bridges. The story relies on the basest of humor via Gassy, a dog with gastrointestinal problems and an affinity for Mrs. Heinie's leg, and Lippy the parrot, who squawks "BEAK me! Eat birdseed and DIE!" The fourth-grade boys at this boarding school pull mean tricks, tattle, and easily dupe both faculty and fellow students. Park's cartoon drawings in each chapter, as well as a pull-out sticker sheet, lend a MAD Magazine element that will please the intended audience who may be satisfied by this minnow of a plot awash with repetitive gross humor.-Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.