A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting

Parents need to know that some of the characters, fantasy violence, and suspense in A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting are definitely meant to frighten. All of the action, based on the first book in author Joe Ballarini's series, takes place on a dark Halloween night. The monstrous Grand Guignol (Tom Felton) is made to look particularly creepy, with a pronged tail, elongated limbs, and scarred facial features. While his behavior wavers between menacing and somewhat goofy, he does threaten, hypnotize, and abduct a child with the goal of stealing the scary creatures of the boy's nightmares. The mostly female members of a secret society of teenage babysitters display courage and considerable knowledge to take on the Guignol, his monsters known as "Toadies," and a witch who lives in a gothic mansion with hundreds of lethal cats. The heroes put themselves and even a newborn baby in harm's way to fight the villains, including a tentacle "shadow monster" that turns things to ash and chases a girl around a house. Killing the Guignol involves punching a potion into his heart. The kidnapped boy shows impressive courage in confronting both the Guignol and his dream creatures. Some realistic teen scenes take place in high school -- where kids tease the insecure main character, calling her "monster girl" -- and at a high school party, where teens flirt with each other and drink punch out of red plastic cups. Other taunts include "twerp," "blithering idiot," "pathetic loser," and "sad, small, cruel, insignificant little heart."