It's Halloween, and eighth-grader Kelly has been invited to her first party, but her mother has other plans: babysit her boss' son, Jacob. If Kelly had a hint of what was awaiting her, she'd be terrified. Like many little kids, Jacob sees monsters in his room ly these turn out to be real monsters, which proceed to abduct the boy. Kelly desperately phones his regular babysitter for help and catches sight of a picture Jacob had drawn, triggering a memory: she has seen this bogeyman before! Thus ensues a night that calls all of Kelly's strength and will into play. She finds herself depending upon schoolmates, whom she had considered misfits but who turn out to be babysitters with abilities to ward off and destroy monsters. All the ghouls of Halloween and bad dreams are threaded into this story of finding friendship in middle school. This new series gives babysitting a daring edge and sets up girls outside of the popular crowd as heroines. An entertaining debut.

Babysitting is Kelly's worst nightmare. Needing funds for summer camp, the white 13-year-old grudgingly takes a babysitting job. When her charge is kidnapped by leather-taloned beasties, Kelly discovers that the Boogeyman is actually real. Next thing she knows, Kelly is fighting monsters alongside a secret babysitting society, members of which are a moped-driving teen who looks like she stepped out of an apocalyptic future and three of Kelly's classmates; all are white save African-American Berna, whose hair is "wild [and] puffy." The stakes are high now, as it seems the stolen white 5-year-old has the power to dream dreams into reality, and the Boogeyman wants him in order to fill the world with living nightmares. Kelly, who has never been popular, discovers she's got some really surprising attributes, which increase her chances with her longtime crush, Victor from Guatemala (who's both exoticized and largely off the page). While the story never gets all that frightening, it has its moments, as in the titular guide's catalog of monsters, which includes the ghost of a woman eaten by her own cats. Grand Guignol, aka the Boogeyman, has a flair for the theatrical, and his snarky complaint exemplifies much of the dialogue: "I get called names like ‘creepy evil, twitchy goat legs' or ‘that scary man who keeps trying to eat me.' " A series opener that melds Goosebumps and The Baby-Sitters Club with ironic glue. (Adventure. 8-13)