I always answer: Because that's what kidslike to read. For many years, I wrote funny books for kids-- joke books andhumor magazines. They sold pretty well. But I never had a big best-seller untilI wrote my first scary novel for teenagers. It became a number-one hit. And my second

　　scary novel was just as popular。

　　我的回答是：这是孩子们喜欢的东西。我曾经写过很多年幽默故事给孩子，比如一些小笑话故事还有一些幽默杂志，这些作品也很棒，但是这些从来都没有成为过畅销书，知道我的第一本惊险小说问世，它迅速的登上了排行榜的第一名，然后我又写了第二本，依然非常受欢迎。

　　I knew I had found something kids liked.But I didn't really understand it. I visited many schools and spoke to kids.And I asked them, "Why do you like these books?" And every time, theyanswered: "We LIKE to be scared!" And then I would ask them,"Don’t you think these books are too scary?" And every timethey would answer: "Not scary enough!"

　　我知道我找到了孩子们喜欢的东西，但是我并不是很理解其中的原因。我曾经拜访过很多学校，也和很多学生做过交流，我问他们：“你们为什么喜欢这些书？”他们回答说：“我们喜欢这种惊险刺激的感觉！”我再问他们：“那你们会觉得这些故事太刺激了吗？”但是每次都们都回答我说：“不够刺激！”

　　I figured out that kids enjoyed havingscary adventures when they know they are safe at the same time. That's why I'vealways called my books "Safe Scares." Kids can go out and fightmonsters and defeat vampires and hideous villains-- and know they are safe intheir room reading a book。

　　最后我终于弄明白了孩子们真正喜欢的是一种安全地冒险，这也是他们为什么把我的书叫做“安全惊险”。在我的书中，孩子们可以走出去和怪兽作斗争，可以打败吸血鬼和一切邪恶的角色，但是他们有知道不管怎样他们都很安全，他们只是坐在自己的家里阅读。

　　Also, my books aren’t very scary. I am verycareful never to go too far; never to make the scares too real or upsetting.And I add a lot of humor in the books to keep them from getting too intense foryoung readers。

　　同时，我的书也不是很恐怖。我非常清楚该如何把握这个度，我决不会把内容渲染的过于真实，让他们受不了，我还会增加很多幽默的内容以保证他们在阅读的时候不会过于紧张。

　　And so with Goosebumps, I became verylucky. I stumbled onto something that kids really wanted to read. And theywanted to read more and more of them. The Goosebumps readers weren’t justreading-- they were developing a reading habit。

　　鸡皮疙瘩让我变得非常幸运，我找到了孩子们喜欢的东西，而且他们越来越喜欢，鸡皮疙瘩的读者不仅仅只是单纯的阅读，他们在阅读的过程中也逐渐养成了阅读的习惯。

　　One mother wrote a letter to me that Inever forgot. It said:

　　"Dear R.L. Stine, My son never enjoyeda book in his life. But the other night, I caught him reading one of your booksat two in the morning under his blankets with a flashlight."

　　曾经有一个母亲给我写过一封信让我很难忘：

　　“亲爱的斯坦，我的儿子从来都不喜欢读书，但是一个晚上，我抓到他躺在被窝里拿着手电筒在读你的一本书。”

　　That made me feel really good. Now, when Ido book signings at bookstores or public appearances, parents stop to thank mefor getting their kids to start reading. For getting their kids to realize howenjoyable and entertaining reading can be。

　　这个信息让我感觉非常的好，现在，每当我在书店或是其他地方做签售的时候，家长们都会过来感谢我让他们的孩子开始阅读，并让他们的孩子意识到原来阅读也一样可以给他们带来愉悦的感觉。

　　Of course, in my country the debate continues:Do you give kids books you think they should read? Or do you give thembooks they want to read?

　　当然，在美国时常还会有这样的争论：你是应该给孩子你认为他们应该读的东西，还是有那个该给孩子他们自己想读的东西？

　　It's obvious that my answer is: give thembooks they want to read. Let them read whatever they think they willenjoy. Once they develop the reading habit, they will go on to read all kindsof books and all kinds of authors。

　　我的答案当然是：给孩子他们自己想读的东西。他们想读什么就让他们读什么，一旦他们养成了阅读的习惯，他们自然就会去读各种各样的图书，接触各种各样的作者。

　　My son Matt is the perfect example. When hewas young, he didn't like to read at all. He never read any of my books.I think he did that just to try and make me angry! If you are an author, yourkid is NOT going to read your books. It's a very easy way for a kid to separatehimself from his parent, to be independent。

　　我的儿子马特就是一个很好的例子。在他小的时候，他根本不喜欢阅读，他从来不读我的任何一本书，我想他之所以这样做只是为了气我！你是一个作家，结果你的孩子根本不读你的书，其实这只是孩子为了为了独立，强调自己和父母是分开的个体的一种方式。

　　Anyway, Matt read only Garfield comics. Idon’t know if you know Garfield or not. It is a comic strip about a very fatand lazy cat. Matt would read Garfield comics every night and laugh and laugh.That's all he read. He was missing out on a lot of wonderful children's books。

　　马特只喜欢加菲猫，我不知道你们是否知道加菲猫，这是一个关于一个又肥又懒的猫的一个漫画书。马特每天晚上都乐此不疲的阅读，然后整个人笑翻，他因此做过了许多很好的儿童图书，但这就是他喜欢读的。

　　But my wife and I didn't say anything. Wedidn't try to force any other books on him. We knew he was reading and enjoyingit. Later, Matt went to college-- and became a literature major! He went fromreading Garfield the Cat to reading all the classics of American literature.And he did very well. We were very proud of him。

　　我和我的妻子从来都不会干涉他，我们从不强迫他去读一些其他的书，我们知道他很享受这个阅读的过程，后来，马特考上了大学，他竟然选择了文学专业！他从加菲猫开始，慢慢的阅读了美国文学史上的所有经典著作，他做的很好，我们都为他而骄傲！

　　Today, I've written more than 100Goosebumps books. And I still work five or six days a week, turning out newones. I still enjoy coming up with new ways to surprise kids and get theirimaginations going。

　　现在，我已经创作了超过100本鸡皮疙瘩了，我仍然保持每周五到六天的写作时间来创作新的作品，不断地给孩子们带去新的惊喜，不断的引发他们的幻想，还是我最愿意做的事。

(编辑：陈辉)

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