History Creator / BruceCoville

* ''Amulet of Doom'' (1985 in ''Twilight: Where Darkness Begins'' series; reprinted 1996)

* ''Bruce Coville's Strange Worlds'' (2000)[[labelnote:Contents]]''A Walk in the Dark'' (1950), by Arthur C. Clarke; ''Healer, by Connie Wilkins; ''2064, or Thereabouts'' (1964, part of the ''Moderan'' series), by David R. Bunch; ''The Looking Glass'', by Alethea Eason; ''Free Will'', by John C. Bunnell; ''Egg Shells'', by Nina Kiriki Hoffman; ''Cockfight'' (1980, part of the ''Pit Dragon'' series), by Jane Yolen; ''Hello, Darling'' (1996), by Anne Mazer; ''Trading Places'', by Noreen Doyle; ''The Sea Turned Upside Down'', by Gus Grenfell; ''Whooo-ooo, Flupper!'' (1987), by Nicholas Fisk; ''The Dead Planet'' (1946), by Edmond Hamilton; ''Fun on Phrominium'', by Karen Jordan Allen; ''Sweet Home'', by Nancy Varian Berberick[[/labelnote]]

!!''Oddities''

!!Coville's short stories contain examples of:

* BackFromTheDead: Brion, the protagonist of ''With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm'', returns from the grave after being executed and angrily forces the king who ordered his demise to call back the soldiers he controls and withdraw his kingdom from the ongoing multi-sided war altogether. After three years of advising the king, Brion ultimately sees the other armies also decide to stop fighting and, with the threat ended for good, is thus able to return to his grave and rest in peace.
* CavalryOfTheDead: Brion, the protagonist of ''With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm'' (originally released in ''A Wizard's Dozen: Stories of the Fantastic'' and collected in Coville's anthology ''Oddly Enough''), leads one against enemy soldiers who've been sent to raid his kingdom. Unusually, the dead don't attack the living -- they just point out what it'll be like to be dead, and the soldiers decide they'd rather go home and live as long as possible.
* DraftDodging: In ''With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm'', there are people who avoid being drafted because they're physically unfit and others who avoid it because they're too frightened, too smart or simply "too loving"; this last category is the most dangerous, because objecting to the war has been made illegal. The protagonist, Brion, fits the last category and fakes being crippled to avoid serving in a war he doesn't believe in, but ends up revealing his true status and is arrested and [[OffWithHisHead executed]] for it.
* ForeverWar: In ''With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm'', there's an endless one going on between the fifteen kingdoms on the continent of Losfar, and it's gone on for ''so'' long that when one kingdom pulls out, the others decide after a few years that this kingdom deserves punishment for daring to get prosperous while they're still spending their resources to defend themselves, and thus send armies of their own against it. Fortunately, Brion and his ghostly allies are able to finally bring the war to an end.
* NeutralityBacklash: Attempted in ''With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm''. When Brion's kingdom pulls out of the Forever War and starts minding their own business, the other fourteen kingdoms send armies to invade. Brion calls up an army of his fellow dead to point out what the continuing war will lead to, leading to the other armies leaving them in peace.

Four standalone horror stories originally published in the teen horror series ''Dark Forces'' and ''Twilight: Where Darkness Begins'', they were reprinted in 1996 as a single series.

Five genius kids - Rachel and Roger Phillips, Ray "Gamma Ray" Gammand, Tripton "Trip" Duncan Delmar Davis, and Wendy "Wonderchild" Wendell III - have been dragged off to a remote island so their scientist parents can work on the ultimate computer project: creating a machine that can truly think. Upon discovering this, the kids decide to beat their parents at their own game. Joined by Hap Swenson, whose father runs the island's motor pool, they soon discover the project and its scientists are being targeted by multiple organizations, each with their own goals. [[labelnote:Note]]''The A.I. Gang'' was originally co-written with Jim Lawrence as part of a "package series", with Lawrence writing books 2 and 3, and Coville writing books 1 and 4. However, Coville wound up taking over book 3 at the publisher's request when Lawrence fell behind on the work. After the series went out of print, Coville bought back the rights to his three books, rewrote them from the ground up, and republished them in this new form, writing around ''The Cutlass Clue'' since it hadn't done much to advance the plot.[[/labelnote]]

Nina "Nine" Tanleven and her friend Chris Gurley find themselves solving a series of mysteries involving ghosts and hauntings when they discover a ghost in a theater in their hometown of Syracuse, New York.

When Stuart Glassman discovers his favorite movie director has opened a summer camp for kids who want to learn how to make movies, he immediately signs up. Little does he expect that by summer's end, he'll have been kidnapped by a sasquatch, chased by a mummy, and menaced by a room full of monsters.

When young preteens stumble into S.H. Elives' magic shop, each winds up taking home a special item that will change their lives forever.[[note]]Part of the continuity that also includes ''The Foolish Giant'', the ''Goblins'' duology, ''The Dragonslayers'', ''The Unicorn Chronicles'' series and a handful of short stories.[[/note]]

A series that starts out about WeNeedToGetProof, but halfway through, turns into a series about HumanityOnTrial.

Blork is the biggest brat on the planet Splat. But one day, he and his pet Poodnoobie Lunk wind up embroiled in an adventure that will change his outlook on life for the better.

!!''Goblins'' duology
William has lived in Toad-in-a-Cage Castle his entire life. But one night, he discovers the strange secret in the north tower, leading him into a dangerous quest to rescue a friend from the land of the goblins. Book 2 continues the story from the point of view of William's friend Fauna, and reveals both their origins, as well as that of the enormous stone toad that gave the castle its name.[[note]]Part of the continuity that also includes the ''The Foolish Giant'', ''The Dragonslayers'', ''The Unicorn Chronicles'' series, the ''Magic Shop'' series and a handful of short stories.[[/note]]

Rod Allbright believes he's a relatively normal sixth-grader… until a tiny spaceship and its occupants crashes through his window and enlist his aid in arresting an intergalactic criminal, who must be stopped before he completes a plan that will lead to the destruction of the entire universe.

Young Cara finds herself embroiled in an unexpected adventure when she enters the magical land of Luster, home of the unicorns and other beings, and encounters the Hunters seeking to destroy them.[[note]]Part of the continuity that also includes ''The Foolish Giant'', the ''Goblins'' duology, ''The Dragonslayers'', the ''Magic Shop'' series and a handful of short stories.[[/note]]

* ''Into the Land of the Unicorns'' (1994)
* ''Song of the Wanderer'' (1999)
* ''Dark Whispers'' (2008)
* ''The Last Hunt'' (2010)

Adaptations of the classic Shakespeare plays, incorporating essential lines from each of them into a prose style.

Earth has made contact with another world, and its ambassador insists that his son, Pleskit Meenom, be treated like a normal Earth kid. That means enrolling him in sixth grade, where he and his new best friend Tim Tompkins get into all kinds of wild adventures.

A young boy named Edward finds himself having adventures with the wizard Moongobble.

A revival of the series begun by Creator/PaulaDanziger, co-written by Coville and Elizabeth Levy after Danziger's death.

!!''The Enchanted Files''
A humor/fantasy series where the events of each book are told through diary entries and other documents.

* ''Space Station Ice-3'' (1987 as ''Murder in Orbit''; reissued in 1996)[[note]]Originally the second in the ''Omni Odysseys'' series, a package series of three unrelated science fiction stories - the other two were ''Astro Pilots'' (1987), by Laura J. Mixon; and ''Skyborn'' (1988), by Marcia H. Kruchten.[[/note]]

* ''Fortune's Journey'' (1994) - a historical fiction story, set in 1853.

* ''Armageddon Summer'' (1998) - Collaboration with Creator/JaneYolen.
* ''The Monsters of Morley Manor'' (2001)[[note]]Revised and collected version of the serial novel of the same name, originally released in books 7-11 of the ''Literature/BruceCovillesBookOf'' series.[[/note]]

* ''Always October'' (2012) - his 100th book published.[[note]]Revised and expanded version of ''My Little Brother is a Monster'', from ''Bruce Coville's Book of Monsters'' (1993).[[/note]]

* ''The Foolish Giant'' (1978) - Coville's very first book to be published. [[note]]Part of the continuity that also includes the ''Goblins'' duology, ''The Dragonslayers'', ''The Unicorn Chronicles'' series, the ''Magic Shop'' series and a handful of short stories.[[/note]]

Themed anthologies with introductions and an opening story by Bruce Coville, and occasionally one or two more of his snuck in among the other entries. Books 7-11 include the five-part story ''Literature/TheMonstersOfMorleyManor'', which would be expanded and revised into the book of the same name.

Themed anthologies. Unlike his previous "Book of…" series, these do not usually include any stories by Coville himself, and he does not count them in his formal list of books.

Anthology series containing a mix of previously published and brand new stories exclusively by Coville. Each contains nine stories and an essay; the series also collects five of Coville's introductory stories from the ''Literature/BruceCovillesBookOf'' series (excluding ''My Little Brother is a Monster'', ''Wizard's Boy'' and the five portions of ''The Monsters of Morley Manor'').

* ''The Dungeon'' #2: ''The Dark Abyss'' (1989) - Coville's contribution to a fantasy series organized by Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer and written by multiple authors.
* ''Planet Builders'' #1: ''Mountain of Stolen Dreams'' (as Robyn Tallis) - part of a ten-book, six-author series.

* TheVerse: ''The Foolish Giant'', ''The Dragonslayers'', the ''Goblins'' duology, the ''Literature/MagicShop'' series, ''Literature/TheUnicornChronicles'' and a handful of short stories all take place in the same [[TheMultiverse multiverse]]. Specific links include:

* CavalryOfTheDead: Brion, the protagonist of ''With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm'' (originally released in ''A Wizard's Dozen: Stories of the Fantastic'' and collected in Coville's anthology ''Oddly Enough''), leads one against enemy soldiers who've been sent to raid his kingdom. Unusually, the dead don't attack the living - they just point out what it'll be like to be dead, and the soldiers decide they'd rather go home and live as long as possible.

* NoIndoorVoice: ''Goblins in the Castle'' has Hulda, the castle maid, who always shouts. Justified because she's mostly deaf and shouting is the only way for her to hear herself talk.
* OurGoblinsAreDifferent: The goblins in ''Goblins in the Castle'' and the short story "The Stinky Princess", while definitely weird, are mostly snarky and pragmatic, and tend to be a lot more decent than many human characters.

* SdrawkcabName: The ''Goblins'' series features goblins from the land of Nilbog.
* SolitarySorceress: The witch Granny Pinchbottom in ''Goblins in the Castle'' is a sort of boogeyman figure the main character William was taught to fear, but when he encounters her, she turns out to be well-intentioned, though somewhat duplicitous and scary, and gives him [[ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest a few items he needs]].

!!Other works by Bruce Coville contain examples of:

* CreatorThumbprint:
** Quite a few works involve miniaturized individuals. Aside from the ''Rod Allbright Alien Adventures'' series with its two-inch aliens and ''The Monsters of Morley Manor'' with its five inch title characters, characters are shrunk to two inches in an installment of the ''I Was A Sixth Grade Alien'' series.
** Coville's hometown of Syracuse, New York is a recurring setting in his works, including ''Literature/NinaTanleven'', ''Literature/IWasASixthGradeAlien'' and ''Literature/MonsterOfTheYear'', and [[Literature/RodAllbrightAlienAdventures Rod Allbright]]'s hometown is based on it (book 4 mentions that Rod and Coville "live in the same area".

* ScrapbookStory: Each of the books in the ''The Enchanted Files'' series consists mainly of diary entries from the main non-human character, but also mixes in assorted papers from other characters, including letters, memos and those characters' own diary entries.

* TheVerse: ''The Foolish Giant'', ''The Dragonslayers'', the ''Goblins'' duology, the ''Literature/MagicShop'' series, ''Literature/TheUnicornChronicles'' and a handful of short stories all take place in the same [[TheMultiverse multiverse]]. Specific links include:
** The wizard Bellenmore and his apprentice Aaron link multiple series: they appear in person in Coville's short story ''Wizard's Boy'' (from ''[[Literature/BruceCovillesBookOf Bruce Coville's Book of Magic]]''), and are mentioned in ''Goblins on the Prowl'', ''[[Literature/MagicShop Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher]]'' and ''The Unicorn Chronicles''. All three stories talk about how Bellenmore had sent the majority of Earth's dragons away from their birth world for their own safety, and the latter two feature dragons who were directly affected by Bellenmore's actions.
** ''Goblins on the Prowl'' describes the events of ''The Foolish Giant'' as happening in its past, and references characters from ''The Dragonslayers''.
** The short story ''The Boy With Silver Eyes'' features the title character visiting Nilbog (from the ''Goblins'' duology) and meeting a Guardian of Memory (from ''The Unicorn Chronicles'').

[[folder: Short stories]]

[[/folder]]

* HollywoodMidlifeCrisis: In ''The Enchanted Files'', book 1 (''Diary of a Mad Brownie'', later retitled ''Cursed''), Alex Carhart's father undergoes one when he quits his job to focus on his music. Which is terrible. It turns out to be a side-effect of the curse that Angus Cairns, the titular mad brownie, carries with him -- any male of the family he's living with is bound to try to make beautiful poetry, rhymes or lyrics, but which will always come out wretched. Once the curse is broken, the afflicted turn back to their original selves, and Mr. Carhart reclaims his job and gives up trying to write song lyrics.

* NotSoImaginaryFriend: In ''The Enchanted Files'', book 1 (''Diary of a Mad Brownie'', later retitled ''Cursed''), Alex Carhart's little sister Destiny has an invisible friend, Herbert the Goblin, who later supposedly disappears after her teacher tries to convince her he isn't real (angering Angus, the titular "mad Brownie"). Later on, when the protagonists (including said teacher) travel through the Enchanted Realm, they meet Herbert and learn he's a crewman on a ship there -- he met Destiny while he was on shore leave, and left with a promise to keep in touch when his time was up.

!!''Moongobble and Me''

A revival of the series begun by Paula Danziger, co-written by Coville and Elizabeth Levy after Danziger's death.

* ''The Thief of Worlds'' (announced for April 2021)

* ArmyOfTheDead: Brion, the protagonist of ''With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm'' (originally released in ''A Wizard's Dozen: Stories of the Fantastic'' and collected in Coville's anthology ''Oddly Enough''), leads one against enemy soldiers who've been sent to raid his kingdom. Unusually, the dead don't attack the living - they just point out what it'll be like to be dead, and the soldiers decide they'd rather go home and live as long as possible.

* SolitarySorceress: The witch Granny Pinchbottom in ''Goblins in the Castle''.

* NotSoImaginaryFriend: ''Diary of a Mad Brownie''. [[spoiler:Alex Carhart's little sister Destiny has an invisible friend, Herbert the Goblin, who later supposedly disappears after her teacher tries to convince her he isn't real (angering Angus, the titular "mad Brownie"). Later on, when the protagonists (including said teacher) travel through the Enchanted Realm, they meet Herbert and learn he's a crewman on a ship there -- he met Destiny while he was on shore leave, and left with a promise to keep in touch when his time was up.]]

See also Creator/RLStine and Creator/KAApplegate for similar writers.

** Coville's hometown of Syracuse, New York is a recurring setting in his works, including ''Literature/NinaTanleven'', ''Literature/IWasASixthGradeAlien'' and ''Literature/MonsterOfTheYear'', and [[Literature/RodAlbrightAlienAdventures Rod Allbright]]'s hometown is based on it (book 4 mentions that Rod and Coville "live in the same area".

!!''Rod Allbright Alien Adventures''

* ''Literature/AliensAteMyHomework'' (1993)

* ''Literature/RodAlbrightAlienAdventures''

* ''Thor's Wedding Day'' (2005)

* CreatorThumbprint: Quite a few works involve miniaturized individuals. Aside from the ''Rod Allbright Alien Adventures'' series with its two-inch aliens and ''The Monsters of Morley Manor'' with its five inch title characters, characters are shrunk to two inches in an installment of the ''I Was A Sixth Grade Alien'' series.

%%* ''Literature/IWasASixthGradeAlien'' - redirects to a page about a TV series

[[folder: I Was A Sixth Grade Alien]]

* MarsWantsChocolate: The aliens visiting Earth want to find a reason to establish friendly relations with us, but we don't have anything they actually particularly want. Until, that is, they discover peanut butter. Not because it's so delicious, but because it [[LovePotion supercharges their romantic and sexual drives]].
* ThePrankster: Beebo Frimbat, an imp from another planet who's featured in books 9 and 11.
* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: Protagonist Tim Tompkins mentions in the first book that he's been waiting for aliens to contact Earth since the first time he saw ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'', and that he's seen it 47 times by that point.
* SquareCubeLaw: In one book the characters are shrunk to about seven inches and quickly discover that this has not affected their strength or mass; after trying to get off a desk they attempt jumping down onto a open drawer and snap right through it.
* StayWithTheAliens: Linnsy Vanderhof chooses not to return to Earth after undergoing MentalFusion with an alien symbiont, deciding instead to travel the galaxy.

[[/folder]]

* ''Bruce Coville's Book of Fear'' (2012; e-book only release)[[labelnote:Contents]]''There's Nothing Under the Bed'', ''The Japanese Mirror'', ''The Thing in Auntie Alma's Pond'', ''Herbert Hutchison in the Underworld'', ''The Language of Blood'', ''The Mask of Eamonn Tiyado''. [[/labelnote]]

!!''Camp Haunted Hills''

[[folder: Camp Haunted Hills]]

* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler:At the end of book 3, after his experiences in the alternate timeline where he lived longer and didn't like how he turned out, Robert disappears into the afterlife after saying goodbye to Stuart and telling him to "Be very careful you don't grow up to be a jerk."]]
* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: The focus of ''Cry of the Sasquatch'', the film the characters are making in the first book. And then it turns out they're ''real'', and have been living near the camp for some time.
* TheBully: Lucius Colton in the first two books. Flash Milligan, the camp lighting specialist in all three books, is a grown-up version who's even worse.
* EmbarrassingNickname: In book 3, Winston's is "Winnie the Wimp".
* FriendlyGhost: Robert, most of the time. However, he's also shown a vengeful side against jerks and crooks.
* IntergenerationalFriendship: Stuart with the camp's special effects teacher Harry Housen, and Brenda with the camp's makeup specialist Aurora Jackson.
* InvisibleToNormals:
** Ghosts, unless they ''want'' you to see them.
** Time vortexes, unless you've been pulled through one recently (which doesn't usually work on mortals)... and to top it off, as long as you can see them, you can go through them. Once you stop seeing them, you're no longer affected.
* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Invoked in ''Some of My Best Friends Are Monsters''. Lucius Colton, who's already transformed once thanks to the Jekyll Juice, is in the room when everyone else unwittingly drinks it ''en masse'', but avoids drinking it himself. He informs Stuart that after everyone turns back, he'll lie and tell them he was immune to the effects because of this trope.
* MamaBear: Or rather, Mama ''Bigfoot'', who is willing to fight in defense of a perceived young Bigfoot whom she thinks has been kidnapped by humans. She's heartbroken when she discovers it's really Stuart in costume.
* MeaningfulRename: The camp itself, which went from the nonsensical "Camp Haw N'ed Hee Las" to Camp Haunted Hills after former counselor Robert Campbell started hanging around as a ghost.
* MultitaskedConversation: ''How I Survived My Summer Vacation'' introduces the rather puckish Robert Campbell, a ghost whom only Stuart (or anyone else Robert chooses) can see; this makes conversation difficult when the two are around anyone else, but Stuart manages to figure out how to pull these off at least some of the time. Robert in turn actually congratulates Stuart on being able to do this the first time he does so.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The series features famous director Gregory Stevens (who founded the camp in its current form), who is essentially a combination of George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg. His films include the ''Battle For the Galaxy'' trilogy (a reference to ''Star Wars''), ''White Death'' (referencing ''Jaws''), ''Temple of the Golden Arches'', and ''Boogeymen'' (which was said to be making money so fast that the government would have to open a new printing plant to make enough dollars to pay his earnings).
* NoodleIncident: Exactly how Robert died, which Stuart wonders about but Robert refuses to answer the one time he asks. The closest we get to an answer is early in book 2, when Harry states that "A man's got to do what a man's got to do", which Robert says disgustedly "is the kind of thinking that got me turned into a ghost", and a comment late in book 3 when he experiences an alternate timeline in which he's still alive while still remembering being fatally shot in the original timeline.
* PlaygroundSong: ''99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall'' is mentioned as being sung during the bus trip in ''The Dinosaur That Followed Me Home'', until one camper overhears a nickname for one of the new kids and switches to a song based on that instead.
* PutOnABus: Lucius Colton, one of the campers from the first two books, doesn't return for Stuart's second year.
* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: In ''How I Survived My Summer Vacation'', Stuart Glassman admits to having seen ''Battle For the Galaxy'' fifteen times the first week it was open.
* ShapedLikeItself: Used as an insult in ''The Dinosaur That Followed Me Home'', where Flash Milligan demands to know if Stuart is trying to make a fool out of him. Robert, unheard by Flash, says that "That would be like making a duck out of a duck."
* {{Slurpasaur}}: In-universe in the ''Camp Haunted Hills'' trilogy, set at a camp where the attendees learn how to make movies. Harry Housen (ironically, named for [[Creator/RayHarryhausen an effects artist who specialized in averting this trope]]), who teaches special effects, specializes in holographic projection and is always painting his pet iguana Myron different colors, or pasting wings, fins or other things on the lizard, even figuring out how to make smoke come out of Myron's nostrils at one point, and then uses the altered iguana as a model for said holograms. Fortunately, the lizard is very patient about all this. The resulting holograms are more effective than one would think -- they terrify both humans and, in the finale, a family of Bigfoot holding the heroes captive.
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Ghosts, such as Robert - he's shown talking to lizards and dinosaurs.
* TimeSkip: Between books 2 and 3. Book 2 ends late in Stuart's first year at Camp Haunted Hills, while book 3 picks up right before he goes back for his second year.
* UnfortunateNames: Brenda's cousin is named Winston de Pew. Stuart's immediate thought is to say "Sorry about your name", but he resists.

[[/folder]]

Bruce Farrington Coville (born May 16, 1950) is an American author of the baby boomer generation known for his YoungAdult and ChildrensLiterature. He tends to write in the SpeculativeFiction genre, occasionally dipping into horror, although generally of the [[DefangedHorrors kid-friendly variety]].

* ''Aliens Ate My Homework'' (1993)