A mystery keyword searcher is looking for… a scary book about a babysitter telling a couple of kids a scary story.

Gosh, babysitters figure in so many scary stories, but usually (oddly, considering that they’re the ones supposedly in charge) they’re victims. I don’t know if our mystery searcher has a specific book in mind or is just looking for any story that fits these criteria. If it’s something specific, I don’t know that I have an answer, but there is one extremely creepy short story I know of where a babysitter tells her charges a very creepy story. That story is “The Specialist’s Hat”, and it appears in the short story collection Pretty Monsters, by Kelly Link. If anyone out there has knowledge of a BOOK with this theme, please post it in the comments below.

Thanks!

ETA:  It looks like we have a winner! If you haven’t checked out the comments below, Jericho suggested  “When Nobody’s Home: Fifteen Baby-Sitting Tales of Terror” by Judith Gorog.  If you’re interested in finding out more about her or her books, I did respond in the comments, but I’ll copy it below, too. Here’s what I said:

I am not personally familiar with Judith Gorog’s books, but it looks like she was responsible for a lot of scary books and short story collections for children and young teens, mostly written in the 1980′s and 1990′s (this particular title was published in 1998). Since we get a lot of requests for the scary stuff for kids in these age groups, I’ll list some of the titles I found at the Pennsylvania Center for the Book (for the entire article click here). One review I saw for “In a Messy, Messy, Room”(at the lower end of the age range) recommended setting the book out with Alvin Schwartz’s “In a Dark, Dark, Room” and “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark”, so if you can find them, they look like they’re worth checking out!

A Taste for Quiet and Other Disquieting Tales. New York: Philomel, 1982.
When Flesh Begins to Creep. London: Gollancz, 1986.
Caught in the Turtle. New York: Philomel, 1983.
No Swimming in Dark Pond and Other Chilling Tales. New York: Philomel, 1987.
Three Dreams and a Nightmare and Other Tales of the Dark. New York: Philomel, 1988.
In a Messy, Messy Room, and Other Strange Stories. New York: Philomel, 1990.
Winning Scheherazade. New York: Atheneum 1991.
On Meeting Witches at Wells. New York: Philomel, 1991.
Please Do Not Touch. New York: Scholastic (Point Horror), 1995.
When Nobody’s Home: Thirteen Tales for Tonight. New York: Scholastic, 1994.
Zilla Sasparilla and the Mud Baby. Cambridge: Candlewick, 1995.
In a Creepy, Creepy Place and Other Scary Stories. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.