Night of the Living Dummy
Twins Lindy and Kris compete over ventriloquist dummies as insults and damage accumulate and no one can agree who is responsible. The supernatural threat grows inside a recognizable sibling contest.
- First published
- 1993
- Reading stage
- For older children
Reading this with your child
Track the two dummies
Keep Lindy’s Slappy and Kris’s Mr. Wood distinct, noting who handles each and when trouble occurs. Later franchise fame can make readers misremember which dummy drives this first story.
Separate jealousy from evidence
The twins have reasons to blame one another before accepting a supernatural cause. Ask which incidents could be pranks, which have witnesses and how rivalry distorts their conclusions.
Prepare for insults and menace
The dummies use cruel language and threatening behavior, and the ending restores unease after apparent safety. Readers unsettled by dolls or loss of bodily control may prefer daytime or shared reading.
Compare before choosing: Both deliver compact horror through disbelief and reversals, but the dummy story makes sibling jealousy obscure evidence while Dead House isolates a whole family in a hostile town. View the comparison title →
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