Point Horror: The R.L. Stine Special Edition

The Baby-Sitter #1-3

by R.L. Stine

Book by R. L. STINE

Genres: Horror, Young Adult, Horror Thriller, Fiction

378 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.

http://us.macmillan.com/itsthefirstda...

Reviews

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

3 brilliant stories of a girl named Jenny, I was on the edge of my seat from the first chapter. Great writing, nice short chapters that makes it a quick read for me. Totally recommend reading this

[OG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always have loved RL and his YA chillers. This has to be my favourite though. I remember reading and re-reading it as a 13 YO. My parents didn’t like me reading horror but I managed to sneak them in the house.
Mr Hagan was truly a great character and poor Jenny... you would stop being a babysitter right?
Great blast from the past that has lost none of its chill factor.

[Amber "Epp" · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this author what a blast from my past so much spine chilling fun lol .... :)

[Amanda Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. Read it as a teenager and re read it as an adult..

[Daniella Clear · Rating 3 out of 5]

while this book petrified me as a teenager I didn't find it half as scary now that I am older however it was still a good read and some parts of it had me laughing out loud remembering how scared I was when I first read it. I can see why I loved this series even if it doesn't scare me anymore

[Geraldine · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was an intense chiller book if you wanna get kinda scarred its a great book

[Rea]

I really enjoyed this series as a teen. It was one of my favourite horror trilogies. I wish I could remember more about the books. Unfortunately, my mum made me get rid of a number of books at one point, and my special edition of the Babysitter trilogy was one of the victims.

[BRNTerri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since this is three novels in one, books I-III I'll review each of them here.

THE BABYSITTER/My grade- B

Like all others in this series, this was a quick read, being under 175 pages. Other than the characters being in high school, grades, ages, and location weren't given.

Jenny Jeffers is the babysitter, and she lives with her mother. I don't particularly care for the mother, whose role is minimal in this.

Chuck, the classmate that likes Jenny, is overbearing and over the top yet still likable somehow. He just tries too hard to get her attention.

Donny's the annoying boy who's being baby-sat by Jenny. The author wanted us to know about four times that the kid has blond hair.

Mike Hagen, the man who's six-year-old son Donny Jenny's babysitting, is definitely over the top in his worry of his son and it got to be annoying.

This was suspenseful with several cryptic things going on at once. I can't say I was surprised to find out who the villain was. So far this one in the point horror collection had the villain with the most awful background. There are several more in the authors babysitting series involving the same lead character, Jenny and I do look forward to them since each one seems to have a conclusion and not a cliffhanger.

THE BABYSITTER II/My grade- C

This one was worse than the one that came before it and it seems shorter somehow but is around the same length. It takes place in the summer, about eight months after the previous one ended. It follows the same formula as the first in this series- Jenny's babysitting an annoying male child who's got blond hair and blue eyes and has an odd personality. She's paid $5 per hour, just like with the other babysitting job. She continues to receive the same creepy phone calls from an anonymous person. She's got different friends in this one, three of them, and of course both boys like her, and a character from the previous book makes an appearance.

The ten-year-old boy in this one is Eli. He's got three pet tarantulas, loves horror movies, and likes for the bad guy to win. He's got a really high IQ and his parents seem scared of him.

The negatives- Two of the three new friends in this didn't really serve a purpose. I didn't like sitting in on Jenny's multiple therapy sessions because all she did was repeat to the doctor everything we already know happened. It was just a way of filling up pages. Nothing exciting happened.

You'll never in your wildest dreams guess who the villain is so don't try.

THE BABYSITTER III/My grade- B

The third installment in The Babysitters series takes place a little over a year after the previous one ends. Jenny's in need of a change of scenery so she goes to stay with her teen cousin for the summer, and gets a job at a horse stable while she's there. Like the others in this series, there are quite a few characters in this one, some totally unnecessary, like ex-babysitter, Maggie, and Don.

Her cousin Debra's not that great of a person and likes to prank call a guy she likes and be flirtatious even though she's got a boyfriend. She was in this as much as Jenny was, so there were two main characters, which was nice for a change.

I never had an inkling as to who the villain could have been in this one and was truly surprised at the ending. I have to say this one was a bit less suspenseful than the previous two.