Amy Kramer



Amy Kramer is the main protagonist in the thirty-first book Night of the Living Dummy II. She is the younger sister of Sara Kramer, and the older sister of Jed Kramer.

History
Amy is one of three in her family and is the middle child. She also feels dumb on Thursday nights because of a family tradition called Family Sharing Night, where every member of the family has to share something with the rest of the family. Amy has the most problems with Family Sharing Night because she never really knows what to share as she is not talented the way her older sister Sara is and not a total goof like her younger brother Jed. She thought it was kind of boring to hold up a collection of seashells and talk about them and no one is into Bob Marley reggae music as much as she is. So Amy usually comes with a good story, much to her father's delight. But she likes to have fun with her dummy, Dennis as when her five-year-old cousins came to visit, she liked to entertain them with Dennis and they would squeal and laugh. Amy also reckoned that she is getting better with her ventriloquism, in spite of Jed's complaints. Unfortunately, Dennis has become so old that his head keeps on falling off!

One night, after Jed had his turn, Amy came up and practiced some jokes with Dennis that her family didn't find very funny until Dennis' head fell off once again, making Sara and Jed laugh. Amy was very upset at this and she screamed at her father that he promised her to get a new dummy. But her father told her that he had been checking the stores for a new dummy but they were all very expensive. Amy was dismayed at this, as Dennis' head falls off every time she used him to which her mother replied that Amy should do her best. It was then Sara's turn and she had a new painting of a watercolor to share. Amy was very upset and angry at this as she is jealous of Sara and her paintings. But the painting had been ruined by Jed, who had painted an ugly smile face on the watercolor, angering Sara. After Jed had been punished for his actions, Amy stayed in Sara's room and watched her try to fix her painting. Amy was feeling sorry for her sister at first, but then lost all sympathy when Sara wondered how Jed could destroy a "work of art". A few times even Amy had thought about painting something funny on her sister's paintings, but of course she only thought them. She would never do anything that horrible. Later that night, after making plans to get together with her friend Margo the next day, Amy was in bed when she found Dennis' head staring at her through the darkness at her in her window. It turned that Jed put the head there as a joke because he was angry with Amy for not sticking up for him and not saying anything to help him out about Sara's painting. But Amy told Jed that he deserved to be punished as he knew how seriously Sara took her paintings.

The next afternoon, Margo came over and the two girls talked about how Margo's father always gives her the worst jobs (Margo's father owns a huge restaurant called The Party House). Margo then told Amy that her father would like her to entertain some younger kids with Dennis at the Party House, as he was very impressed with her ventriloquism at a sixth-grade talent show. Amy thought that was an exciting idea, but then she told Margo that Dennis' head falls off every time she used him. Later, Amy's father came home with an "Unbirthday" present for Amy: a new dummy named Slappy! Amy was very excited about this. She started to put her hand inside the dummy's back for the controls, only to feel what felt like a brain! Actually, what was thought to be a brain turned out to be a rotted sandwich, much to Amy and her father's disgust. After Mr. Kramer suggested that they should examine Slappy more closely, Amy found a yellow paper with ancient words on it and read the words out loud and then saw her dummy wink. Amy stuttered to her father that Slappy moved, but Mr. Kramer sceptically said that maybe the eyelids are loose and wondered if he could screw them up when Slappy slapped him in the cheek. Mr. Kramer told his daughter to stop hitting him with the dummy, much to Amy's surprise as she did not hit him at all, but then decided to drop it as she didn't think she believed it herself and apologized to her father.

After telling Margo that she is able to perform at the Party House now that she has a new dummy, Amy started spending more time with Slappy, practicing some jokes with him instead of doing her homework. This prompted Amy to try the jokes out on Family Sharing Night, as it would be a good practice with her act and it would make her father happy that she is working hard with Slappy. At dinner, Jed washed his face with spaghetti so much that Mrs Kramer ordered him to go clean up. And then Jed came back dressed as Dennis, making it look like that Dennis was walking on his own, frightening Amy. Even her parents thought that was very funny. Amy was angered at this, but overcame it when Family Sharing Night began. When her turn came, Amy started to tell Knock-Knock jokes, but Slappy uncontrollably started insulting her parents, angering both of them. Amy struggled to tell her parents that she did not make the insults and that Slappy was talking on his own, but they did not believe her. So Amy apologized sincerely and went to bed, feeling upset and confused.

The rest of the week did not go very well for Amy as she had a bad day on Friday, and she had received a bad report saying that she is not doing the best of her ability. So on Saturday, Amy's parents forced her to stay at home to finish her science project, while Sara went to the mall with some friends. Amy had been real jealous with Sara earlier as Sara on the other hand had a good report with all A's. Amy did as best as she could to finish her assignment with Jed distracting her about playing video games with him. Amy managed to finish her report and decided that it needs a great-looking so she went to Sara's room to borrow her markers. Jed asked Amy what she was doing in Sara's room and she grumpily told him it was none of his business. After Amy finally finished her work, Sara returned home from the mall and then she, Amy and their mother found Sara's room unbelievable mess in her room. At first, Mrs Kramer thought Jed did it, but then Jed told them that Amy went into Sara's room and wouldn't tell him why she went in there. Sara and Mrs Kramer were horrified and Sara started to think that Amy made the mess because she was jealous of Sara's report card. Amy was shocked at this and she tried very hard to tell them that she only came in to borrow markers and brought them back as proof. But her mother still wasn't convinced and told Amy that she would feel better if she confessed, upsetting Amy that they would think that she would do such a horrible thing. After a long while of crying, Amy got up and found some paint on Slappy's shoes, wondering what is going on.

Later that night, after her father got home, everyone gathered in the living room to discuss what to do about Amy. Amy tried to tell her parents about the paint on Slappy's shoes, but her father only wanted to hear an explanation for the crime that was committed in Sara's room. But Amy insisted that she was giving an explanation leading her parents to think about taking her to a psychiatrist. Amy didn't think she needed one so her mother suggested that they have a talk and figure out the best thing to do. In the meantime, Amy was grounded for two weeks, no friends over and no trips anywhere. Life in her house has been real difficult for Amy as Sara had been pretty cold to her and that Jed kept his distance from her. Amy really wanted to get sick so that everyone would stop treating her like a criminal. But Amy's parents did let Amy go to the Party House to do her performance, so Amy once again practiced jokes with Slappy but started to feel pretty uneasy about him.

But things did not go well at the Party House when Amy was dropped off. When she got there, Amy met a three-year-old birthday girl named Alicia. Amy asked Alicia if she would like to shake Slappy's hand and Alicia did so, with Slappy wishing her a happy birthday. But then Alicia found that Slappy wouldn't let go. Alicia and her mother thought it was funny at first, thinking that Slappy liked Alicia. but then Alicia found that she was truly stuck. Her mother ordered Amy to let Alicia go and to Amy's surprise, she found that Slappy's hand had clenched tightly around Alicia's. With Alicia crying uncontrollably, Amy struggled to free her when Slappy laughed an evil laugh, finally letting go. But Alicia, with the other three-year-olds joining in wouldn't stop crying much to her mother's fury. She called Margo's father out of the kitchen and said that she was going to sue the Party House. Margo's quietly asked Amy to leave, telling her that it wasn't her fault but the three-year-olds were afraid of Slappy now.

Amy took the bus home and the minute she walked in her room, threw Slappy in the closet. Mrs Kramer and Sara stepped in and Amy told them what had happened at the Party House. But her mother said that Alicia probably got her hand caught and asked Amy if she really believed that Slappy grabbed Alicia. Amy decided that she better not insist that her story was true so she did go with her mother's theory. So Mrs Kramer suggested to Amy to put Slappy away for a while. And then they went into the kitchen with Sara thinking that her sister had gone weird.

After a talk with Margo about the incident and a deep, dreamless sleep, Amy woke up to hear Sara screaming about something that Amy had done. Amy and her family rushed over and found that someone had scrawled AMY AMY AMY AMY all over Sara's walls in red painting. Amy's parents told her that this cannot continue, but Amy shrilly insisted that it was Slappy and so she led them to her own room where Slappy was holding a paintbrush. Amy frantically pointed out to them, hoping she finally had her proof, but her parents thought that she put the paintbrush there to make it seem like it was Slappy. Her parents were really getting worried, so Mrs Kramer suggested that they should calm down and try to figure something out. When they left, Amy angrily yelled at Slappy to admit that he did, only to hear him giggle cruelly.

After that, Amy was totally grounded and wasn't allowed to leave her room on a very beautiful day. Margo called to tell her that her father has six-year-olds coming to the Party House, but Amy declined, saying that she was finished with dummies. Then Amy vowed that she will catch Slappy in the act and make sure that everyone sees that she is telling. Amy was let out of her room to have dinner and later that night Jed came into her room saying that he heard Amy calling him, which turned out to be his imagination. After that, Amy woke up to find Slappy getting out of the closet and followed him to Sara's room. Slappy was about to ruin another one of Sara's paintings, but Amy managed to stop him just in time. Sara woke up, but thought that Amy was going to ruin her painting.

The next morning, Amy's mother told her that she has an appointment with the doctor on Wednesday, making Amy more determined than ever to prove that Slappy is alive. At lunch, Margo asked Amy what has been troubling her, but Amy refused, not wanting everyone to think she was crazy. Later, while Amy was contemplating on what to do, Slappy stepped out of the closet and told her that they should have a little talk.

Slappy told Amy that she is his slave for she had read the ancient words that bring him to life and that she would do as he would say from now on. Amy protested at this, but Slappy threatened that he will destroy more things, not only Sara's stuff but also Jed's as well and Amy will be blamed for it all, and then Amy will be sent away and never see her family again, except on visiting days. Angered at this, Amy began to fight the evil dummy until she managed to have him locked into her closet. Seeing that she needed help, Amy rushed out to tell her parents but then decided they won't believe her, so she went to Sara's room and asked her for help.

To Amy's surprise, Sara actually knew that Slappy was alive. It turned out that she pretended to sleep when Slappy wrote AMY AMY AMY AMY on her walls. The reason that Sara didn't tell their parents is that she didn't want to believe that Slappy was alive and that the truth was to scary. She wanted to believe that it was Amy doing the horrible things and not the dummy. Amy was astounded at this as Sara wanted Amy to get in trouble, prompting Sara to admit that she had been jealous of Amy because everything is easy for her and that everyone liked her sense of humor and it wasn't like that for Sara for she had to paint to impress people. Amy was even more surprised to find that Sara had been jealous of her as she had been jealous because of her paintings. After such relief that the truth was out, Amy and Sara went to her room to face Slappy, who had just broken out of the closet, together. The two sisters managed to tie Slappy in a knot and carried him outside, looking for somewhere to dump him, until they found a sewer at the curb and dumped him into it. The next morning, Amy and Sara went down to breakfast, when Jed pointed to Slappy sitting in a chair, to his sisters' shock. Mrs Kramer asks Amy to take Slappy back upstairs as he was meant to stay in the closet.

After a long day at school, Amy once again followed Slappy to Sara's room when Dennis suddenly appeared out of nowhere and rammed into Slappy, causing him to crash into Sara's bedpost and crack his head in two. Amy and Sara had arranged their parents to hide in the closet and see the whole thing while Jed dressed up as Dennis to defeat Slappy. Mr and Mrs Kramer apologized to Amy for not believing her and they went to Jed's room to tell him what a good job he did. But it turned out that Jed had been asleep the whole time, leaving Amy and her family wondering who fought Slappy.

Personality
Amy is a girl with many problems. She always feels dumb at Family Sharing Night and she has the most problems because she usually doesn't know what to share. And she is constantly annoyed about Dennis' head always falling off. Her father said that Amy is going to be a famous writer and that she is good at making up stories, but Amy reckoned that he was just saying it to be a good parent and to "encourage" her and her mother always tells her to do her best. Amy sometimes spells the word for Jed B-R-A-T as she is often annoyed with his pranks. Up until the recent events, she has always been jealous of Sara as she is the star of the family with her paintings and she thought that Sara was so in love with herself and thought that she was so perfect. But after each other's honesty, they overcame their jealousy with each other. Amy has a very good sense of humor, but it is unknown if she is still working with dummies after her run-in with Slappy.

Appearance
Amy is twelve years old, Caucasian, tall and thin with straight black hair, dark green eyes and very tan skin. She looks a lot like Sara and used to wonder if she could get a haircut or a tattoo.

Books

 * Goosebumps
 * Night of the Living Dummy II
 * Goosebumps Presents
 * Night of the Living Dummy II
 * Classic Goosebumps
 * Night of the Living Dummy II

Television & Film

 * Television series:
 * Season 1 - Night of the Living Dummy II

Actress

 * Maggie Castle (television series)

Trivia

 * Amy is the first different protagonist for a sequel and also the first to replace another protagonist.
 * Amy is the only character in the Living Dummy series to date to convince her parents about Slappy (Though it could be possible that Lindy and Kris Powell managed to convince their own parents about him. Then again, it is never mentioned what had happened at their house).
 * She Has Her Hair Down in 3 Parts.