Title: The Babysitter Murders
Author: Jane Ruth Young
Summary: Dani is your average high school junior: She plays tennis, sings in her high school a cappella group, shares her lunch each day with her best friend and has a job babysitting an sweet-natured kid, Alex, most days afterschool. Everything seems to be going well: She’s on track to be co-captain of the tennis team, and the guy she likes seems to like her back. There’s just one problem. She can’t control the thoughts in her head. About calling her mother horrible names. Or outing her gay best friend. Or, most chilling of all, brutally murdering little, adorable Alex.
Dani knows she has to quit her babysitting job, so she decides to tell Alex’s mom the truth: She keeps thinking about killing the boy. When the cops arrive to take her home, Dani believes the worst is over. But as word spreads that a babysitter has threatened a child, the people in town become enraged. Soon the line between truth and rumor become blurred and Dani becomes the target of a national frenzy. This is a brutal, all-too-realistic story that will haunt you and make you think twice about what you read in the tabloids.
Who will like this book: Mature readers who like crime fiction and thrillers. If you’ve ever had a wicked thought and wondered ‘did I say that out loud?,’ this book will scare the socks off you. A good book for teens and parents to share.
If you like this, try this: I am not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells. The Thought That Counts by Jared Douglas Kant.
Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian