Note that I avoided making a horrible Goosebumps joke.

A book by R. L. Stine.

Pulled from a middle school library.

Not surprising, as it was originally published as an adult novel.

Comments

[JudiAnne Reppucci]

I remember something similar with Judy BLume's "Wifey" some years back. Being a Judy Blume book a number of elementary/middle school librarians and parents bought it for their young'uns based on her past books and popularity. Turned out to be an adult book.
Things like this reiforce the need to check before purchase even of known authors. No law say they have to keep writing as they have in past.

[Little Willow]

When the book came out, I thought, "After having a successful, known teen sequence called THE BABY-SITTER, why on Earth did Stine decide to have an adult novel called THE SITTER?!"

[Jsaczawa]

That's what happens when you use a reading incentive program as a collection development tool. It's amazing, and distressing, how many schools are doing so.

[Sarah]

The Judy Blume, Wifey thing makes me furious. Not only is the book full of explicit sex (and almost nothing else), the sex in question is seriously messed up (affairs with gynocologists, rape fantasies, that sort of thing). I read the book when I was eight, because it was written by my favorite author (my parents had bought it, read it, and quickly hidden it, but I was resourceful) and I can't tell how deeply it disturbed me. I really (really really) think she should have published it under a different name. If you want to be an incredibly popular children's book writer, that's great, but it comes with responsibilities.

end rant.

[Leila]

I wondered about that, too, LW. I'm pretty sure there are even sequels to The Baby-sitter.

From what I've read, The Sitter sounds like a cross between that Poison Ivy movie and Fatal Attraction.