Say Cheese And Die - Again!

Say Cheese and Die — Again! is the sequel of Say Cheese and Die! and it is the 44th book in the Goosebumps series, written by R. L. Stine. It was published by Scholastic in 1996. Unlike the first book, which was written in the third person, this book is narrated by the main character, Greg.

Plot

In spite of his promise not to tell anyone about the evil camera he and his friends discovered over the summer, Greg tells about the camera in an oral report in his English class, only to receive a failing grade. Promised a better grade if he retrieves the camera and proves his story true, Greg retrieves the camera from the Coffman House (though no explanation as to how it was returned there is ever given) and finds that it still causes bad things to happen. After Greg accidentally takes a picture of Shari, she takes a picture of him. Shari's picture is a negative and shows her unnaturally skinny while Greg is unnaturally fat. Both events slowly start to occur to both characters over the course of the story.

Synopsis

An undetermined amount of time after the first incident with the evil camera, Greg finds himself in Mr. Saur's English class. Mr. Saur is a very strict and unkind teacher who is nicknamed "Sourball" by his class. On this day, Greg is called up to give an oral report of a true event. This report will count for half his overall class grade. Greg gives his report, only to be mocked by the class and eventually stopped by Mr. Saur, who gives him an "F" for not doing the assignment. Greg insists that his report is true and encourages Mr. Saur to speak to his friends who will surely back him up, but Mr. Saur is unwilling to believe him still and says the only way to change his grade is to bring the camera and prove that it is evil. Greg then leaves trying to decide if he should or should not get the camera.

At lunch, he discusses the idea with his friends Shari, Bird and Michael, all who are against the idea. But Greg had been promised a visit with his cousins over the summer and believes this to be infinitely better than staying in his hometown, especially when his friends will not be around this time. Furthermore, the two class bullies, Donny and Brian, start mocking him by making mock photos with their hands and quote "Say cheese and die!".

Faced with being harassed by his fellow students and not getting to go to visit his cousins over the summer, Greg decides to go ahead and retrieve the camera. However, when he visits the Coffman house, he discovers that it has been torn down, much to his dismay. While searching the area Greg meets a boy that's about his age by the name of Jon. Jon, at first, mistakes Greg for a thief, but soon realizes he's not who he thought he was. According to Jon, the camera was already retrieved and thrown out by workers. Fortunately, the camera is still located in the dumpsters. Greg retrieves the camera, but now Jon is curious as to why he's interested in it. Greg is reluctant to explain the truth and only gives away that the camera works. Jon then wants to keep the camera and attempts to take it. By accident, Greg takes a picture of Jon. The picture shows Jon on the ground with a long carpenter nail through his foot. Jon is amused by the picture, but agrees to let Greg borrow the camera for one day if his father will approve. When he runs off to find his father, however, he steps on a carpenter nail and is taken to the hospital.

The next day, Greg attempts to take the camera to school, but is confronted by Shari, who is not happy with Greg retrieving the camera. During a quick fight between the two, Greg accidentally takes Shari's picture, which comes out as a negative. This leads to the decision that the camera must be broken. Even so, Shari takes Greg's picture as revenge. This picture is not a negative and shows him to be extremely .

Later that day, Greg finds that Mr. Saur is not at work. foiling his attempt to change his grade. However, when he tries to return the camera to his locker, he is stopped by Donny and Brian. They take the camera from him and are about to take his picture when they are stopped by the school principal.

Although Greg manages to escape the bullies, Greg is already feeling his clothes tightening and his backpack will no longer fit. Later, he becomes so heavy he pops his bike's tires. He also feels tired and finds it easier and easier to tire out. The next day, his pajamas rip. However, in spite of all this, no one believes that he's getting fatter.

Mr. Saur's true nature starts to show when he mocks Greg for getting heavier upon entering his class. Greg attempts to get his grade changed, but Mr. Saur doesn't believe the picture of Jon is real and attributes it to a fake nail made only to look like it is going through something, much like a fake arrow he once had. The grade remains unchanged. Upset over the way that Mr. Saur refuses to change his grade and starts making fun of his weight, Greg goes out of the room and bumps into Shari, who is now so thin her skirt is falling off. She reveals that she's been rapidly losing weight since her picture was taken. Later that day, Greg is invited into a softball game, but is mocked for his weight.

The next day, Greg is so large that he cannot even ride the car to school because he can't fit in the car. His parents believe this to have been caused by a food allergy and resolve to take him to the doctor later.

At school, Mr. Saur makes several crude remarks about Greg's weight and though no one in class laughs, Greg still feels humiliated. Finally, Mr. Saur sends Greg to the nurse's office, where he finds Shari is even thinner. She claims that she had a hard time getting to school because the wind kept pushing her back.

After a visit to the doctor's office, Greg decides to take matters into his own hands and goes to find Shari, who is now so thin she's compared to a stick figure. In attempt to get back to normal, Greg has a second picture of himself taken but instead of the picture showing him back to normal size, he is still fat and now has scaly skin. Greg now develops a skin disorder in which he develops red scaly patches of skin that are extremely itchy. These pieces of skin break off rather easily.

Desperate to find a cure, Shari and Greg first think maybe they should tear up the pictures, but scared by what may happen if they do so they decide against it. Next, they think if they can reverse the pictures (turn the negative into a positive and the positive into a negative) they can reverse the process. This idea is accepted and the two make their way to Kramer's Camera Shop, where Terry (Greg's older brother) works. Though reluctant to reverse the pictures, Terry finally agrees and gives the reversed pictures to Greg and Shari.

Morning comes and Greg wakes up to find himself normal again. Though he is overjoyed at returning to normal, he is also angry with Mr. Saur for the bad grade and crude remarks and decides to take his revenge by taking a picture of him with the cursed camera. However, before Greg can take the picture, Mr. Saur insists that he takes a picture of the entire class. Greg takes the picture of not only Mr. Saur, but the rest of the class as well. The story ends here, and the reader never finds out what happens to the class.

Tagline

Think negative. Real negative.

Television version

The sequel to Say Cheese and Die! was also made into a Goosebumps TV episode, with these changes made:

• Jon is absent from the show.
• In the end of the book, Mr. Saur tries to prove to Greg that the camera doesn't predict doom by taking a picture of everyone in class with the ending, unclear on what happened after the picture was taken. On the TV version, Greg takes a photo of Mr. Saur and a picture of him balding is shown. Mr. Saur brushes this off as a joke, until he runs his fingers through his hair and finds clumps of hair in his hands.
• In the book, at the beginning, It already starts with the school, with students in their seats and Mr. Saur called Greg for the report, but at the television series, It starts at Greg's House at midnight and he is sleeping in his bedroom until the Grim reaper comes with the Evil camera. Greg woke up with a heart attack and he almost got his picture taken by the Grim reaper. But it turned out to be a horrible dream.
• On the TV series, There are no students in the classroom after the beginning, and Greg only told the car crash by the camera and when Shari mysteriously disappeared in the picture.
• Greg's transformation is overnight, rather than in one day
• Bird isn't in the sequel.
• At the end of the TV series, Mr. Saur says that no student has ever gotten an "A" in his class but when there is a close up on the picture of him bald as his hair is falling out, it is shown that he had given one of the students an "A" in his grade book.