Florence will host its first Reader Riot book festival April 28-29, and R.L Stine will be the headline author.

Stine is the best-selling author of the “Goosebumps” series and other young adult horror stories, such as “Mostly Ghostly” and “The Nightmare Room.”

“One of the biggest reasons we wanted Stine at the Reader Riot is because pretty much everyone has a connection to him,” said Nancy Sanford, executive director of Florence-Lauderdale Public Library. “Either you read the books to your children when they were young, you read the books yourself as a child, or your children are reading them right now.”

While the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library is hosting the event, the College of Arts and Sciences is sponsoring Stine’s visit.

In recognition of Stine’s visit, the library plans to make April as “creepy and crawly” as Halloween, said Jennifer Butler Keeton, programming and publicity coordinator at Florence-Lauderdale Public Library.

“With Stine coming to the Reader Riot in the spring, that just means people in the Shoals will get to celebrate Halloween twice in 2017,” she said.

Lookout for a story of the festival from The Flor-Ala closer to the scheduled date.