Bad Hare Day (A Book Review)
R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series has been known for being extremely creative, inspiring creature driven nightmares and visions into young readers since their publication in the 90s. A Bad Hare Day is not the first in this long standing series coming in at #41. I recall reading the series myself and expected a riveting tail about magic gone horribly wrong. Let's take a look and see if this rabbit jumps out of its hat.
The plot points of this story were very easy to detect, as a second grade level book should be. (SPOILER ALERT!!!)
Tim is a magician who has a bratty sister, Ginny, who ruins his shows. He has a best friend, Foz. Tim's magic tricks suck.
While visiting a local magic shop, the owner gives Tim two free tickets to see Amaze-O's magic show. Amaze-O being Tim's idol, must be visited, despite his curfew and parent's orders. Tim and Ginny sneak to the magic show.
Tim steals his idols magic kit. As he and his sister experiment with the kit the magic gets out of hand and turns Ginny into a rabbit.
Tim brings back the magic kit in aims of turning his sister back to normal, whereupon he discovers a mysterious truth about his hero. Amaze-O is actually a rabbit!
While Ginny is transformed back to normal, Tim is tricked into being turned into a rabbit so that Amaze-O can retire and becomes a permanent part of the magic act.
Some general questions leading up to the end were what types of mischief were going to befall Tim in stealing Amaze-O's magic kit, and exactly what role did the Hare on the front cover take?
Despite all of the build up towards a creepy atmosphere the story really never picked up on any of the possible exploits it could have used. The story introduced locales that could have done well to beef up the scare factor.
A dark garage at Tim's house was mentioned twice. Once while he worked on magic equipment of his own, and a second time when returning from sneaking home.
The basement of the mansion where Amaze-O's magic show was put on.
Malik's local magic store that had a trick guillotine, fake swords, and a box used for the illusion of cutting someone in half.
These three locations could provide numerous situations of chaos and creepiness:
The dark garage could have had a psycho rabbit running rampant just beyond eye sight. Perhaps the car could rev magically or the power tools come alive and float through the air (as had been one of Amaze-O's magic tricks with an alarm clock).
The basement was introduced as the main character participated in the magic show, falling down through a trap door into the soggy basement. Tim even pondered whether rats were present around him in the dark, dank room.
Malik's magic shop had enough equipment of professional grade to have warranted a full creep show all on its own! A guillotine that came magically to life, a box that sewed people in half. Perhaps an illusion of someone's remains would be present inside. (Although that is stretching the PG limit) A fake sword with monster blood on it. The little oddities of cards forming lips to speak or flitting about entertains my imagination a bit too. I'd even contemplate if (though not expressly mentioned and usually sold in novelty shops) the fake barf would have come to life and make splat noises!
Instead however, as we read this book we see the three kids (Foz, Ginny, and Tim) take the magic kit upstairs where they sample more traditional magic tricks like fake snakes, red ball shuffling, and summoning doves from a top hat. None of which really captured the flare I had expected to see of unruly magic gone awry in the hands of an amateur magician. It was at least expected (even if I was a Second Grader) that the magic was evil or some dark form of mysterious.
Tim did sample Amaze-O's kit at night, which sprang forth the fear of snakes overcoming and entangling him, which may be frightening to a select audience for obvious reasons. It was a shame that he discovered very quickly that the snakes were fake and thus the illusions was lost very rapidly.
It seems that the real "fear" of the book was geared towards the emotions a young reader would feel towards his parents or siblings. The enunciation of how important it was to sneak carefully out of house despite Tim's disposition of "not caring if he got grounded" really drove the idea that the parents were a central antagonist, along with Ginny who thwarted Tim's progression at every turn.
Ginny's sibling antagonizing could really have a younger reader empathize with Tim. Her kicking and karate chopping may in fact have been a symbol of bullying to younger audiences. Bratty nature as it stands is obviously not as clear a "fear" as parental punishment, but the threat of being kicked and tattled on really rang true several times in the book.
There was one discrepancy I find myself at odds with however. When Tim returned Amaze-O's magic kit that he outright stole and openly admitted to, Amaze-O didn't at all seem frustrated or upset by the blatant confession. In fact, he appeared to retained his grumpy demeanor and was more focussed on conning the kid into replacing him as a rabbit in the magic show.
While the conning may have taken precedence over the anger, it felt lack luster in the ending with no real consequence for Tim's actions despite his just desserts in being transformed into a rabbit. Also, it may be noted that the anger could have been used to incorporate a reason to dig into some bad mojo and summon some evil magic.
In my personal opinion, the story's central conflict should have been more geared toward turning at the point when Tim returned the magic kit, allowing for the anger of Amaze-O to be the boiling point at which all hell breaks loose.
Overall I found the book to be enjoyable. It didn't plod or drag on unnecessary subjects and had a decent pace, exercising its plot points clearly. Some interesting verbiage was present and kept the reading interesting. While I may have some opinions about what could have been done to improve the piece, it suffices and even leaves a small question at the end that serves to sharpen the morality and thinking power of young readers.
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