The Babysitter is a novel series by R. L. Stine. The first novel in the series was published in 1989, and it led to establish Stine as a prominent author in the children's horror genre. The first novel follows a simple premise of a babysitter who finds she is the next in a series of babysitting victims to a crazed killer. Three sequels of this book were published: The Babysitter II on July 1991, The Babysitter III on October 1993 and The Babysitter IV on June 1995.