BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN

dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 419-6563

CHAPEL HILL -- Hundreds of children got "Goosebumps" when the children's series author R.L. Stine made his first ever visit to Chapel Hill Saturday as part of the North Carolina Literary Festival.

The prolific bespectacled writer of things creepy talked little about himself, spending most of his time drawing in young readers with his storytelling. More than 300 million Stine books have been sold, and "Goosebumps" was made into a television show.

Stine read a Shel Silverstein poem, "Haunted," to start. "I like it because it's scary and funny at the same time, which is what I always try to do," he said.

Stine has written 87 "Goosebumps" books as well as the children's series "Rotten School," teen series "Fear Street" and others. His new series is "Goosebumps Horrorland." He read an excerpt of the 14th book, coming out this spring, called "Little Shop of Hamsters." The crowd at the festival were the first children to ever hear a part of that story, which features a blue insta-grow pet that wreaks havoc at Sam and Noah's dinner table.

Stine also brought the children into a storytelling, having them call out and vote on details of "The Haunted Car." The audience chose the boy character's name -- Benjamin; described the haunted car -- a yellow Camaro with spiders in it; and what the ghost looked like -- a gray head with red eyes.

At one point in the story, Benjamin opens the glove compartment of the haunted car and sees a knob and a book, "How to Get Rid of Ghosts."

"Which one should Benjamin use? Let's vote!" Stine said. There were more raised hands for the book. So Benjamin opened the book, which said, "Use the knob." Stine finished the story to thunderous applause.

"Has anyone seen a real ghost?" Stine asked the audience. "I don't know, I may have," he said before telling a story from his childhood in Ohio, when he and his brother Bill went trick-or-treating one Halloween. The ghost was their neighbor across the street.

"Did I make up part of that true ghost story?" he asked. "Did I make up a lot of it? Maybe."

Stine told the children that he reads every message sent to him through his Web site, www.rlstine.com. After his presentation, Stine said he would sign books at the autograph tent, where children rushed, books clutched in hand, for a moment more with the three-time winner of the Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Award.