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Red House Books is going through a bit of a update!

I've always had a pretty clear vision of what I wanted this space to be but I've been detoured from my path by...lots and lost of other people's opinions and ways of doing things...

I'm committed to this little chunk of the interweb but I've also branched out into other places so! Now it's time to think of Red House Books as more of a hub of all things me! And Me is a hell of a lot of book love!

Stay tuned!

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Friday, September 3, 2010

Flashback Friday: The Baby-Sitter by R.L. Stine

Flashback Friday reviews are of books that I read as a teen, reread now years later :)

Title The Baby-Sitter
Author: R.L. Stine
Publication Date: 1989
Originally Read: around the same time

(from back cover)
From the minute Jenny accepted the Hagen baby-sitting job, she knew she had made a mistake. 
First there was the dark and disheveled Hagen house, moaning and groaning with her every step. Then the crank phone calls started. "Hi, Babes. Are you all alone? Company's coming." When Jenny discovered a creepy neighbor prowling in the backyard and a threatening note in her backpack, she realized this wasn't a harmless game.
But who would want to hurt her? What kind of maniac wanted to scare Jenny... to death?

My Review:
Oh man, it was books like this one that lead me to love R.L. Stine so much when I was kid! Looking back on it now....pretty cheesy  - but I still love it!

Jenny was such a annoying character. She was terrified of babysitting at the Hagen's, but she went back every week. She found people lurking around, received strange phone calls and was even sent a threatening letter but she writes it off as nothing and then, when she's back at the Hegen's she's terrified again!

Oh, and don't get me started on Mr. Hagen!

Have to say, the ending, while a little short, was suspenseful. Also, that cover? I remember it very well - and even now, when I look at it, all I can think of is "why is she so cold? oh wait, I guess she's afraid...no...still looks cold to me"

Apparently I missed out because unbeknownst st to me, Mr Stine wrote not 1 not 2 but 3 more Baby-Sitter books! Couldn't believe there were 4 in all! There is a lovely little empty space on my bookcase where I'm sure they will fit - need to find me those babies!

Did any of you guys read this one when you were younger? What do you think?

6 comments:

  1. I remember reading this one. I don't know about the other 3. I miss these books.

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  2. I think I read this one, but I'm not sure. But, I do remember loving R.L. Stine! He was like, THE cool person to read back in like 6th grade. I read lots of his Fear Street books and 10/12 of the Seniors series. Good times!

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  3. Thanks for commenting on my 'forget-me-not' post! It's fun sometimes to look back at books we read when we were younger :) I never read any R.L. Stine (I never went in for horror books) but I agree with you that she sure looks cold (and she's wearing a sweater, too!)

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  4. I read one of Stine's books that I found in my basement this summer. It belonged to my nephew. It was The Third Horror and it was great. When I was in junior high I was all about The Girls Of Canby Hall.

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  5. I'm a little too old to have read Stine as a teenager, but he was writing when my son was a kid. I never did read any of his teen books though I did read a few Goosebumps. I did read a few by Christopher Pike's though which I imagine are the same sort of thing.

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  6. I read a lot of his Fear Street books and there was one has someone losing a hand to a food grinder in the sink and I won't go near them now. They scare me. I do have all the Goosebumps books in my school library and there's a new stretch of them coming out called Goosebumps Horrorland which my students all eat up.

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