Night of the Living Dummy II
| File:Night of the Living Dummy II Cover.jpg | |
| Author | R. L. Stine |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Tim Jacobus |
| Language | English |
| Series | Goosebumps |
| Genre | Horror fiction Children's literature |
| Publisher | Scholastic, Inc. |
Publication date | January 1995 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 120 pp |
| ISBN | 978-0439573740 |
| OCLC | 55948779 |
| Preceded by | It Came from Beneath the Sink! |
| Followed by | The Barking Ghost |
Night of the Living Dummy II is the thirty-first book in R. L. Stine's Goosebumps series. It is the first sequel to Night of the Living Dummy.
Plot
Every Thursday Amy and her entire family gather around for Family Sharing Night. Structured much like a talent show, the weekly event requires every member of the family to "share" something tangible with the group. Amy's older sister Sara is a skilled artist, so every week she shares a new painting with the family. Jed, Amy's red-haired younger brother, is a total jerk, so every week he shares things like notes boys wrote to Amy or belches. Dad shares songs and Mom shares stories, which leaves Amy with her ventriloquist dummy Dennis.
As the book opens, Amy is giving her family a ventriloquist routine. Before Amy can get to the punch line of her joke, the head of her dummy falls off.
The following day, Amy's dad brings her home a new present from the pawnshop: Slappy! Amy reads the words off a yellow sheet of paper in Slappy's pocket and then reaches her hand inside the dummy's head and pulls out something sticky: a rotting sandwich! While her dad investigates the doll for more rotting sandwiches, Slappy punches him in the head.
Amy's friend Margot rushes over to tell her that her dad, who owns a restaurant called The Party House, wants Amy to perform her act for a group of three and four year olds. He'll even pay her $20.
At the next Family Sharing Night, Amy's dad plays "Maggie's Farm" on his guitar. Amy is enjoying herself when she spots her old ventriloquist doll Dennis crawling along the floor of the living room by himself. Amy freaks out and screams. Her family just starts laughing as Jed redeems himself by revealing that he has swiped Dennis's head. Amy's father praises Jed for being so clever by pretending to be a dummy. Amy starts her knock-knock routine with Slappy. But before Amy can break out the hilarious punchline Slappy begins viciously insulting her parents. He calls her mom fat and her dad bald. Amy tries to explain that Slappy just calls them as he sees them, but her parents become furious. Then Slappy drops the u-bomb: "Did I mention you are all ugly?"
The next day, Amy comes home with a bad report card and is grounded. She sneaks a phone call to Margot, who is also grounded for bad grades, and they briefly discuss the show at the Party House next week. Then Amy starts working on her report for science class. Once it's typed up, she realizes that it needs a nice drawing on the cover and goes into Sara's room to borrow some markers. A little while later, Sara comes home and discovers someone has smeared paint all over the white carpet in her room. The family naturally begins to blame Jed but he claims innocence and points the finger at Amy, who he saw go in earlier. No one believes she didn't do it, even when she shows them the paint on Slappy's shoes.
Amy is double-grounded but still allowed to perform at the Party House. Amy's mom drops her off and she starts preparing for the show. Backstage, a little girl named Alicia comes up to Amy and asks to be introduced to her doll. Amy smiles at Alicia's mom and exchanges some banter with the little girl. Slappy grabs the little girl's hand and won't let go. The little girl starts crying and screaming but the dummy won't loosen its grip. A group of children gather around and start crying as Alicia's mother pleads with Amy to knock it off. Finally Slappy lets go of the kid. Amy gets fired and takes the bus back home.
Amy decides to stay up late so she can catch Slappy in the act of doing some bad. As soon as the dummy comes to life, she follows it into Sara's room. She watches as Slappy grabs a paintbrush and then tackles him before he can ruin another painting. Sara wakes up and calls her parents into her room to stop Amy. The next morning, Amy is told she has an appointment with a "shrink." Before she can make that appointment however, Slappy decides to break his silence. He informs her that she's his slave and that until she accepts that, he'll keep vandalizing the house until they lock Amy away.
Amy decides that violence is the solution and begins wrestling with Slappy. Slappy shares her enthusiasm for violence and punches her in the head, knocking her out. She comes to and locks Slappy in the closet. He begins ramming the door, trying to break it down. Sara comes into Amy's room and admits that she knows Slappy is alive but wanted her parents to think Amy was crazy because she was jealous of her.
Slappy bursts out of the closet and the girls tie his arms and legs together and throw him away. But the next day, Slappy shows up on the kitchen table.
That night, Amy hears Slappy once more sneaking into Sara's room. She follows him in but then another shadowy figure lunges out of the dark at Slappy. The girls flip on the lights and see Dennis, Amy's old dummy, pummeling Slappy. Dennis throws Slappy against the iron bedpost. Slappy's head cracks in half and a large white worm crawls out.
Amy parents burst out of Sara's closet and clumsily admit to believing Amy's story. Sara and Amy had set the entire thing up, with Jed reprising his role as Dennis. Then, Jed walks in the room and apologizes for oversleeping. Amy then begins to wonder who fought Slappy thus revealing to the reader that Dennis did it.
Tag Line
He's still walking. He's still stalking.
Book Description
You Can't Teach An Old Dummy New Tricks!
Amy's ventriloquist dummy, Dennis, keeps losing his head...for real. So Amy begs her family for a new dummy. That's when her dad finds Slappy in a local pawnshop. Slappy's kind of ugly, but at least his haead stays on!
Amy loves practicing her new comedy routine. It's like this dummy knows what she's thinking. Like he can move by himself. And it's a lot of fun...until Slappy stats a routine of his own. A nasty, horrible routine that isn't funny at all.
Slappy may have a new owner, but he's up to the same old tricks....
TV Version
- The Party House was never featured in the episode.
- Sara's painting easel is ruined with a family drawing in red. In the book, her walls are ruined when Slappy drew huge red letters "AMY" all over.
- Amy discovers red paint on Slappy's finger, although in the book, she sees a bunch of colored paint all over his shoes.
- Margo is African-American in the episode. In the book, she is a Caucasian.
- Alicia is Margo's sister in the episode.
- Alicia's finger was caught by Slappy in the episode. In the book it was her entire hand.
- Margo's friendship with Amy ends after Alicia's finger was caught by Slappy in the episode. In the book, Margo is still her friend.
- Amy stuffs Slappy in the sewer instead of Amy and Sara throwing him away.
- Sara was never aware Slappy was alive. In the book, she was.
- Sara sees Slappy alive after Amy tries to wrestle it. In the book, Sara saw him alive and takes the blame on Amy.
- After Slappy's head breaks from being tackled by Dennis, green smoke comes out instead of a huge white worm.
- Amy and her entire family see Dennis alive at the end of the episode.