Product Description

When his father brings home an antique cuckoo clock, Michael is cautioned not to touch it, but he turns back the hands and suddenly he is getting younger by the minute--a year younger to be exact.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #389419 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Customer Reviews

Hilarious!
ISBN 0590483528 - I made the mistake of reading reviews before I read the book - and half of them seem to refer to things that didn't happen! Michael's little sister doesn't threaten his life, the bird doesn't attack Michael and the shopkeeper doesn't tell a scary story about the clock.

Michael is 12, big brother to seven-year-old Tara, a top contender for "Worst Little Sister in the World". He gets blamed for everything she does, and that's no accident! Tara sets him up, over and over, even ruining his birthday and embarrassing him in front of his friends. When their father brings home an antique cuckoo clock that Tara can hardly keep her hands off, Michael sees a chance to get even. Twisting the head of the cuckoo to face backwards, Michael is sure Tara will be blamed. That doesn't happen, because when he wakes up, it's his 12th birthday - again! - and they don't even own the clock yet. Michael needs to turn time around again before it's too late (or early...) for him!

Stine's horror story for kids is too funny to be horror this time, but it's worth reading anyway. You'll appreciate your own siblings a little more - unless they're worse than Tara, which is hard to imagine.

- AnnaLovesBooks

Fun and Suspenseful
It's been quite a few years since I've read this book, but my younger brother was searching for something to read from my collection, and I recommended this one to him. For me, the majority of the Goosebumps books were never scary - it was just a matter of if they had likeable characters and a good story.

Fortunately, "Cuckoo Clock of Doom" has both. Michael feels like a more fleshed out character than R.L. Stine's other protagonists: he has a crush on a girl, but his chances with her and with everything else in life are constantly ruined by his evil sister Tara. Tara isn't just a brat, she's written as pure evil, with no redeeming qualities, which only makes the reader sympathize with Michael even more.

The idea of "changing the past" has been used countless times, but it always works because everyone wishes they could do it. Michael tells us his mishaps in the beginning, so it becomes quite involving to see him try and evade the eventual outcomes later on. As the story progresses, it is not so much a matter of changing the past as it becomes a race against time to keep Michael from disappearing forever. The final few chapters, with the obligatory plot twist on the last page, are truly suspenseful and show R.L. Stine at his best.

Overall, this is a highly recommended book for grade-schoolers, and one parents should consider picking up if they see it. The Goosebumps fad has died out now so this one might be hard to find, but this is the kind of quick, light, reading that develops a child's imagination.

One of the best in the series...
Michael Webster often wonders what he did to deserve such a horrible little sister as Tara. Constantly blamed for things that are her fault, she even manages to wreck Michael’s birthday present and ruins his party. Michael wishes that Tara had never been born and he wants revenge.

The opportunity comes when Mr Webster brings home the antique Cuckoo Clock he has dreamed of buying for years and Michael sees the perfect chance to get Tara into trouble. But Michael’s plan goes terribly wrong when he turns the cuckoo head around. Now time is going backwards and Michael is getting younger every day. Will he be able to reverse the clock’s effects before time runs out completely?

This is one of my favourite books in the goosebumps series. “The Cuckoo Clock of Doom” mixes suspense and humour and will keep you reading all the way through. This book also makes me really appreciate being an only child. I recommend this to all kids aged from eight to twelve.

~Jenna~