Que trata del libro de terror escrito por R. L. Stine.
Lectura en inglés justo a tiempo para el mes de octubre. Lector, ¿estás listo para el horror? How I Got My Shrunken Head (Cómo Conseguí Mi Cabeza Humana Reducida) es un libro de terror de la serie de libros Goosebumps (Escalofríos en español) escrita por el autor estadounidense R.L. Stine. Es una historia fácil de leer, divertida e ideal para iniciarse en la lectura.
💀¡Dos cabezas son mejor que una!💀
🌴💀Chapter 2💀🌴
What I saw was a head. A human head, wrinkled and leathery. Approximately the size of a tennis ball. Its pale and dry lips were stretched out and pulled back into a smile. The neck was sewed up with thick black string. Two completely black eyes looked at me fixedly. A shrunken head… A real shrunken head! I was so shocked, so seriously surprised by finding a shrunken head upon opening the front door that it took me a while to notice the lady who was holding it. She was a tall lady, approximately my mom’s age, maybe a little older. She had short, black hair with gray streaks. She wore a long raincoat that was buttoned-up all the way even though it was a hot, sunny day. She smiled at me. I couldn’t see her eyes. They were hidden behind a pair of big, black-framed glasses. She held the shrunken head by its hair, its thick, black hair. In her other hand she carried a suitcase. “Are you Mark?” she asked. She had a smooth, sweet voice, like an actress in a commercial. “Uhhhh… yeah” I answered, looking fixedly at the shrunken head. They never look so ugly in the photos that I had seen. So wrinkled and dry. “I hope I didn’t surprise you with this thing”, the lady said smiling. I was so eager to give it to you that I took it out of my bag. “Uh… give it to me?” I asked without taking my eyes off the shrunken head which stared at me with those black, glass eyes. They looked more like the eyes of a stuffed animal than the eyes of a human being. “Your Aunt Benna sent it to you”, said the lady. “It’s a gift.” She gave me the head. But I didn’t take it. I had spent all day capturing shrunken heads in the game. However, I wasn’t sure I wanted to touch this one. “Mark… who is it?”, my mom appeared behind me. “Oh… Hello!” “Hi!” replied the lady warmly. “Did Benna write and tell you guys that I was coming?” I’m Carolyn Hawlings. I work for her. On the island. “Oh… Goodness! exclaimed Mom. “Benna’s letter must have gotten lost. Come in. Come in.” She pulled me backwards so that Carolyn could enter the house. “Mom, look what she brought for me”, I said pointing to the little green head that was hanging by its hair in Carolyn’s hand. “Gross!” shouted mom, putting a hand on her cheek. “It’s not real, is it?” “Of course it’s real!” I shouted. “Aunt Benna wouldn’t send a fake one, would she?” Carolyn went into the living room and put down her suitcase. I took a deep breath. I gathered up some courage. And I stretched out my hand toward the shrunken head. However, before I could touch it, Jessica came in… and she took it from Carolyn’s hand. “Hey!” I shouted, catching up to her. She got away quickly, laughing, with her red hair flying behind her. She carried the head with both her hands. Then she stopped. Her smile went away. And she stood looking at the head horror-stricken. “It bit me!” Jessica screamed. “It bit me!”
🌴💀Chapter 3💀🌴
I stood there breathless. Mom squeezed my shoulder. Jessica started to laugh; it was one of her dumb jokes. She tossed the head from one hand to another and smiled at me. “You’re a dummy, Mark. You believe anything.” “Just give me back my head!” I shouted angrily. I leaped across the room and grabbed the head. She started to pull it to take it from me, but I grabbed it firmly. “Hey… you scratched it!” I screamed. It was true. I held the head close to my face to examine it. Jessica had put a long, white scratch on the right earlobe. “Jessica… please” begged Mom, crossing her arms and lowering her voice. That’s what Mom does when she’s about to burst. “Behave. We have a visitor.” Jessica crossed her arms and pouted. Mom turned toward Carolyn. “How’s my sister Benna?” Carolyn took off her glasses, and put them in the pocket of her raincoat. She had silvery eyes. She looked older with her glasses off. I could see hundreds of tiny wrinkles around her eyes. “Benna is doing well”, she replied. Working hard, too hard. Sometimes she disappears into the jungle for a couple days. Carolyn sighed and starting unbuttoning her raincoat. “I’m sure you know that work is Benna’s life” she continued. “She spends all her time exploring the jungle of Baladora. She wanted to come too, but she couldn’t leave the island. Instead, she sent me. ” “Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Carolyn”, Mom said warmly. “I’m sorry I didn’t know you were coming, but any friend of Benna is more than welcome.” She took Carolyn’s coat. Carolyn wore khaki-colored pants and a short-sleeve shirt of the same color. Her clothes seemed to really be an outfit for exploring the jungle. “Come, sit down”, Mom said to her. “What would you like to drink?” “Coffee would be good”, replied Carolyn. She started to follow Mom into the kitchen, but she stopped and smiled at me. “Did you like your gift?” I looked at the wrinkled, leathery head I had in my hands. “It’s beautiful!” I exclaimed. That night before going to bed, I put the head on my dresser; I brushed back its thick, black hair. Its forehead was dark green and wrinkled like a prune. The black, glass eyes looked forward fixedly. Carolyn told me that the head was more than a hundred years old. I leaned against the dresser and I looked at it attentively. It was hard to believe that at one time it belonged to a real person. Yuck! “How could that person have lost their head?” I asked myself. “And who decided to shrink it? And who had preserved it after they had shrunk it?” I wished Aunt Benna were here. She would have explained everything. Carolyn slept in the guest room that was downstairs. We had been sitting in the living room, talking about Aunt Benna all night. Carolyn described the work that Aunt Benna is carrying out on the jungle island and the amazing things she is discovering there, in Baladora. My Aunt Benna is a pretty famous scientist; she’s been in Baladora for more than 10 years. She studies the animals of the jungle and also the plant life. I loved listening to Carolyn’s stories. It was as if my computer game, Jungle King, had become real. Jessica wanted to keep playing with my shrunken head, but I didn’t have any intention of letting her. She had already scratched its ear. “It’s not a toy. It’s a human head”, I told my sister. “I’ll trade you two toy balls for the head”, offered my sister. I mean was she crazy? Why would I trade a priceless treasure for some toys? Sometime I worry about Jessica. At ten o’clock at night, Mom sent me to bed. “Carolyn and I have a lot of things to talk about”, announced Mom. I said goodnight and headed upstairs. I put the shrunken head on my dresser and I put on my pajamas. The dark eyes of the head seemed to flash for a second when I turned out the light. I got in bed and got under the covers. The silver light of the moon shined into my room through the window, and I could clearly see the shadowy head that sat on my dresser. “It’s got such a hideous smile”, I thought shivering. “Why does it have that scary look on its face?” I answered my own question: “Mark, you wouldn’t be smiling either if someone had shrunken your head!” I fell asleep looking at the dreadful little head. I slept deeply, without dreaming. I don’t know how much time I slept. But at some time in the night, a terrifying whisper woke me up. “Mark… Mark…”