Ghost Beach is a horror story about a pair of siblings, Jerry and Terry, which stay with their distant old cousins for a month in a haunted town in New Jersey. While playing on the beach one evening Jerry and Terry meet three friends. They ask their new friends about a cave that they discovered and notice that they grow very anxious to get off the topic but, mention the word ghost. Through this adventure R.L. Stine takes his readers into the creepy cave to discover that an old ghost lives there. According to their new friends, this ghost that Jerry and Terry met has haunted this town since the 1600’s and they all must work together to rid of him. Jerry and Terry are puzzled because the ghost in the cave gave them warning that their three friends are actually the ghosts. Jerry and Terry come up with a plan to catch the real ghost by trapping it in the cave. While the plan was in action a dog came upon them and started barking ferociously at the three friends; Jerry and Terry were told that dogs recognize ghosts. Excited about solving the mystery and trapping the ghost, Jerry and Terry run to their distant relative’s house to tell their story. All until a dog stumbled to the house and started barking at their distant cousins.
I would use this book in the classroom to talk about how authors use different writing styles to build suspense. In this story R.L. Stine is very descriptive and uses language that makes the reader feel as if they are in the story with the ghost, such as onomatopoeia.
