The scaaaarrrrryyy Mr Stine

My son's "favourite author" (his words) is profiled in the NY Times.

He gobbles those books up at a rate of about 4 or 5 per week – which may be a conservative estimate. He has a box – a war-surplus crate that used to hold grenades or something – in which he keeps them all. And trips to Value Village are always being requested, because he knows he can pick up half a dozen of the books for about two dollars. He has already started to eye the Stephen King paperbacks on the adult shelves – It being of particular interest. (Killer clowns? Sign him up.)

Some kids go through a kind of "reading puberty" just before the onset of real puberty. Even kids who are book-friendly from the moment they can hold one can go through a spurt that looks almost manic. My own is acting like a little pothead when it comes to reading – there's very little that can get his attention when he's on the stuff. I knew a kid, who is in her mid-teens now, who used to lock herself in a lit, walk-in closet in the basement of her house and spend the entire day reading in her pajamas. The losses in Vitamin D exposure, exercise, and basic socialization are outweighed by the benefits of getting in the habit early. Everyone knows that the fat, pasty-faced weirdos become the cool kids later on. Or sex offenders. But you have roll the dice.