Bad Hare Day
| First edition cover First edition cover | |
| Author | R.L. Stine |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Tim Jacobus |
| Language | English |
| Series | Goosebumps series |
| Genre | Children Novel |
| Publisher | Scholastic |
Publication date | March 1996 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 117 |
| ISBN | 0-439-66216-8 |
| OCLC | 55532617 |
| Preceded by | Night Of The Living Dummy III |
| Followed by | Egg Monsters from Mars |
Bad Hare Day is a 1996 Goosebumps novella by children's writer R.L. Stine.
Plot summary
Tim Swanson is an amateur child magician. Unfortunately, Ginny ruins it for his classmate auidences and hits him. Depressed, Tim and his friend Foz go to the local magic store. They are given tickets to a late-night magic show by Tim's idol, Amaz-O. His parents are unsure of him attending such a late showing.
Tim and Ginny sneak out of the house anyway and bluff their way into the club. Amaz-O chooses Timmy for a volunteer for a latter act. He becomes part of a 'vanish in a magic cabinet' trick. Despite his full participation, he is treated rudely after the show. In an act of revenge, he steals Amaz-O's bag of tricks.
Ginny and Tim evade security and hide the bag in the attic. They promise to examine it later, but Tim sneaks a look anyway, finding number of tricks. Ginny finds it hard to conceal the fact the two have a secret.
Foz shows up to see the tricks. They go awry. First, the ball and cup trick keeps producing balls. Then a number of doves pour out. Tim suggests doing the tricks outside, so any animals can run away. Ginny finds a carrot in the bag, it turns her into a rabbit.
Foz and Tim sneak into the club and find Amaz-O's lifeless body. Or so it seems, he is simply a puppet. The real master is one of the magic act's rabbits, who had been turned from human by a sorcerer. Tim is reassured his sister will be back to normal soon. He is convinced to be part of the show, but the trick is, he will be taking the rabbit's place.
Television version
In the TV adaptation of this episode:
- The rabbit used in Amaz-O's act is an insane (and dangerous) sorcerer with a Spanish accent named El Sydney who tricks Tim into turning him human so he can get his revenge on Amaz-O for turning him into a rabbit and stealing his magic. There is no mention of Amaz-O being a puppet.
- The scene where Tim attempts a rabbit magic trick with Foz's sister Clare's rabbit escaping is not shown or mentioned.
- Amaz-O's jacket contains a single phony rubber snake that isn't mechanical, which Tim knows from the start, unlike the many mechanical snakes that appear in the book version.
- There is no mention of the ball-under-the-cup trick that produces a multitude of red balls in the TV version.
- Ginny does not eat a magic carrot and become a rabbit, but disappears from behind a magic curtain (and is actually shown turning back to normal).
- Amaz-O and Tim are both turned into rabbits in the end and used in El Sidney's magic act, which involves the two of them being put in a guillotine.