The Shreek School is a location from the thirteenth book in the Original Goosebumps book series, Piano Lessons Can be Murder and its television adaptation. It is a music school that is supposedly run by Dr. Shreek, but in reality, by Mr. Toggle.
History[]
In a secluded area, just outside of New Goshen where Jerry Hawkins and his family have recently moved to, is Dr. Shreek's music school. A school that offers lessons for all kinds of budding musicians. After Jerry finds a piano in the attic of his new house, he takes up an interest in wanting to learn. That's when the eccentric Dr. Shreek arrives and tutors Jerry, but seems to be eerily focused on Jerry's hands. Jerry is invited to learn at the piano school which feels empty, even with piano music playing and what looks like teachers in every classroom. Jerry gets attacked by a robot, but is saved by the school's custodian, a man named Mr. Toggle, who reveals to Jerry that he's an inventor and had invented the robot that Jerry was frightened by. He shows Jerry all of his many inventions, but when Jerry hears a cry for help in one of Toggle's cabinets, Toggle brushes it off as just broken machinery.
Jerry also deals with a mysterious ghost woman playing the piano and constantly scaring him, trying to warn him to stay away from the Shreek school. He also learns from his neighbor Kim Lee Chin that there are stories about kids going to the school and never being seen again. During one of the lessons with Dr. Shreek, he begins to go mad about Jerry's hands and tries to attack him. Jerry runs off with Dr. Shreek chasing after, and soon discovers the truth of the classrooms. The teachers are just robots and the music of the pianos are being played by disembodied hands. Before Dr. Shreek can catch Jerry, he's turned off by Mr. Toggle, who reveals that Dr. Shreek was one of his inventions. Toggle then goes after Jerry's hands, saying that he is a master inventor who can invent amazing tools, but can't get the hands right. But before he can get Jerry, the ghost woman and other ghosts arrive to reclaim their hands, as they were the victims of Mr. Toggle. They then grab Mr. Toggle and drag him off to the woods, never to be seen again. Since then the Shreek School was pretty much abandoned.
In the television adaptation, much of the story about the Shreek School remains intact, however the ghost woman who haunts Jerry is revealed to be Mr. Toggle's old piano teacher. After she scares away Jerry, she remains in the school, keeping Mr. Toggle trapped, forced to learn to play the piano for eternity.
Appearance[]
The Shreek School's exterior is described as a brick building covered by hedges. It has rows of tiny windows on its bottom floor and ivy covering the front. Inside there are dozens of rooms, each being hard to see inside with what are at first believed to be teachers blocking the doors.
Gallery[]
