The Girl Who Cried Monster

infobox Book | | name = The Girl Who Cried Monster!
title_orig =


image_caption =
orig title =
translator =
author = R. L. Stine
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = Goosebumps
classification = fiction
genre = Horror fiction, Children's literature
publisher = Scholastic
release_date = May 1993
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 137 p.
isbn = ISBN 0-590-46618-6
preceded_by = Night of the Living Dummy
followed_by = Welcome To Camp Nightmare

"The Girl Who Cried Monster" is the 8th book in R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series.The title is supposedly a reference to "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."

Plot

Lucy is a normal girl who likes to play pranks on her younger brother Randy. She tells him about numerous ghosts and monsters. However, when she discovers that her librarian is a real monster, Lucy tells her friends and parents, only to be met with skepticism. She then visits the library to see conclusive proof that the librarian is, in fact, a monster. She later returns with a camera and took a picture of him. Later her parents go to the mall for a Chinese dinner. She goes to the photo shop and, to her shock he is not in the photo! She takes her friend to his house spy on him. He later tries to kill her, but she gets out and her friend sees it all. Despite this, her parents invite him over for dinner. As it turns out, Mr. Mortman was the dinner, for Lucy and her parents are revealed to be monsters themselves, whose diet includes other monsters. Then they tell her that they came to Timberland Falls to live in peace.

Novel/Television differences

* In the book, the parents simply grow fangs and eat the librarian, whereas in the episode, they grow fangs, but their heads also change shape with reptilian-like features.
* In the book Lucy and her family resume their normal business after "suppertime." In the episode, Lucy's friend crashes in right after the "dinner," just right in time for a slice of pie for dessert. He's unaware that Lucy and her whole family are monsters, but they pose no threat to him.
* In the book Aaron was aware that Mr. Mortman was a monster, although he nor his knowledge of the librarian played an important role at the end.
* In the book, Aaron is Caucasian; in the episode he was African American.
* In the book, Mr. Mortman has pet turtles which he feeds flies; in the episode he has pet tarantulas which he feeds crickets. He later eats the tarantulas.
*As a result, he said "Dinnertime, my furry friends" to his tarantulas, whereas in the book, he said, "Dinnertime, my timid friends" to his turtles.
* In the book, Mr. and Mrs. Dark invite Mr. Mortman over to dinner when Aaron also tells them about Mr. Mortman. In the television show, they invited him over as a way to say "thank you" for returning Lucy's backpack when she left it at the library.

Tagline

She's got the "monster" of all problems!