Babysitting Nightmares: The Shadow Hand

Gr 3–6—Kat Shepherd draws from 1990s kid lit canon in this creepy tale of babysitting gone wrong. Middle-schooler Rebecca Chang and her friends Clio, Maggie, and Tanya love babysitting for their neighbor's infant son, Kyle. He's happy and easygoing—that is, until a power outage during a storm alters the child's personality and creates strange occurrences in his home. After consulting Clio's Aunt Kawanna, the girls are convinced that Kyle has been replaced by a changeling and they are the only ones who can return the child to his family. The story ends happily, but with the door open for another spine-tingling adventure. Clothing descriptions and scares take precedence over character development, but readers won't mind; the chills and cliff-hangers are the real attraction here. Vieira's stylized black-and-white illustrations add to the creep factor without being too graphic or frightening for younger readers, and take care to highlight the cultural diversity found in the friend group.