Slappy Birthday to You

Slappy Birthday to You is the first book in the Goosebumps SlappyWorld series and the ninth book in the Living Dummy saga.

The cover illustration shows Slappy coming out of a Birthday present.

Blurb
It is bad enough that Ian Barker has to spend his twelfth birthday with his younger sister, Molly, and their two annoying cousins, Vinny and Jonny. The four of them can't ever hang out without getting themselves into trouble. And Vinny and Jonny always want to play with Ian's stuff, always taking turns and breaking everything that they touch. Even Ian's new birthday presents are up for grabs. But when Ian gets Slappy from his dad, things go from bad to worse. Because when Slappy is in charge, you don't fight over him, he fights over you!

Plot
Ian and his sister Molly start their morning eating blueberry pancakes for breakfast, they fight over the last piece, then Ian goes to the basement, where Mr. Barker is repairing a doll, he has a doll hospital, and he's working on hundreds of dolls.

There are loud knockings on the door, Ian answers it and get's punched by Jonny, one of his cousins, his excuse was he kept on knocking when Ian answered the door, he and his brother Vinny eat some of Ian's cupcakes, and later go upstairs to play PlayStation video games, the children get in a fight because the two boys were cheating, so Mrs. Barker tells Ian it's time to open presents, only to break up the fight.

Ian's first present is a remote controlled Star Wars BB-8 figure, that Vinny and Jonny, "Tested" then Ian got Slappy, and he automatically loved it, because he always wanted a ventriloquist dummy, Mr. Barker said it belonged to someone and he asked him to repair it, but he never came back for it, a year past, so he decided to give the dummy to Ian, and so Molly wouldn't feel left out, he gives her a 1930's Pasty Doll, which she names Abigail.

Slappy interrupts the story to explain why Ian always wanted a dummy.

Three years ago on Ian's Ninth Birthday, Mr. Barker takes him to a doll museum, owned by a creepy guy named Mr. Klausmann, who wears a baby doll mask because he claims that his face is so ugly, people will get nightmares, he shows him a ventriloquist dummy room, and Ian is fasinated with them all, and plays with two of them, Farmer Joe, and Mr. Fancypants, then all the sudden, everyone disappears, and the dummies begin laughing on their own, Ian runs into a woman in a black blouse, and Ian asks her where Dr. Klausmann went, but she says a person by that name doesn't work there, Ian finds his dad, and tells him that the events were just a prank, Ian thought it was scary, but clever, and that's why Ian always wanted a ventriloquist dummy.

Back to the present day, Jonny and Vinny play with Slappy, and they break his hand, so Mr. Barker fixes him, and the boys go watch a horror film on Netflix. Ian's Uncle Donny tells the kids that their going to have a family talent show, and Ian begins praticing his act. Later that day, Molly discovers that Slappy has his own Wikipedia page, and the article talks about the curse that brings him to life, Jonny finds the spell, Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molonu Karrano, and reads it out loud, but Slappy doesn't come to life, yet. When Ian goes to bed, he dreams that Jonny and Vinny where dummies, and they slap each other.

The next day, Abigail is found with her head broken, Molly accuses Ian for doing it, and that's when Ian notices something odd about Slappy. At the talent show, Vinny and Jonny juggle duckpins, but one of the pins knocks Jonny out cold, and Slappy begins laughing, and Ian's parents think he's making Slappy do that, Jonny's fine, but when Molly goes next, Abigail is missing, she finds the doll in the fish tank, Molly gets mad at Ian, and pushes him in the fish tank and the glass shatters, Mrs. Barker cleans it up, when Ian went last, Slappy made horrible nasty jokes on his own, making fun of the family, Mr. Barker sends Ian to his room, and Slappy begins Cackling at Ian.

That night, Slappy is missing, he is no where to be found, Ian asumes he walked out of the house.

Slappy interrupts again, and tells what Jonny and Vinny are up too.

That morning, it is revealed that Vinny and Jonny took Slappy to scare Ian, but then, Slappy comes to life, starts punching and kicking the two boys, and covers them in this green goo which he calls, "his nosebleed" and the goo burns the boys. Slappy wants them to take him back to the Barker house, to get the spell, so he'll stay alive forever, they go to the house, and Slappy begins vandlizing the garage, Mr. Barker sees the damage, and the two brothers are blamed for the damage.

Ian knows that Vinny and Jonny were telling the truth about Slappy, and they go to the doll hospital to get the spell, but Slappy snatches it first, with Mr. Barker witnessing, and Slappy tears the sheet of paper to shreds, Mr. Barker holds Slappy down and Ian removes his head, but that doesn't stop him.

Slappy rises up, and he brings all the broken dolls to life, and the army of dolls begins to attack the kids, but then, Abigail comes to life, and she says the spell, and Slappy's headless body drops down lifeless.

The kids cheer for their victory, and Mr. Barker apologized to Ian for giving him Slappy for his birthday, but Abigail is still alive, and she commands her new slaves to go make her lunch.

Audiobook
Slappy Birthday to You was adapted into an audiobook on March 14, 2017 by Brilliance Audio.

Trivia

 * The title reference has to do with a song called "Happy Birthday to You".
 * R.L. Stine announced the title in a comment on Twitter.
 * This is the third Slappy book to take place on a birthday, the other two being Night of the Living Dummy II and Bride of the Living Dummy.
 * The book references Wikipedia, Star Wars, YouTube, Harry Potter, PlayStation, Netflix, and Animal Planet.
 * This book introduces a new power for Slappy, his "nosebleed" that burns people.
 * Abigail the Doll may be referencing the alleged cursed doll, "Annabelle".
 * Slappy says the name of the series, SlappyWorld while attacking Jonny and Vinny.
 * Ian mentions a movie about a killer dummy that he watched on Netflix. This is possibly an allusion to the movie Dead Silence, a horror movie about a killer dummy that's on Netflix.
 * Mr. Barker's and Mrs. Barker's first names are mentioned in the book: George Barker and Hannah Barker.