With the help of her sponsor, and his encouragement to return to the sport she loves, Mallory has made huge strides. Now it is time to secure some independence. Teddy loves to draw. However, when his drawings slowly become more sinister and appears beyond the ability of a five year old, Mallory questions who is the real artist. Walrus and Penguin escape from the zoo and wander the city. Can you find them? Together they have many fun adventures and Walrus even finds love! Seek and find with excellent opportunities to pay close attention to detail in the illustrations.

Having recently completed a stint in rehab, Mallory takes a job as nanny to 5-year-old Teddy. His parents, Caroline and Ted are Type A overprotective and uptight, but she and Teddy bond and they spend their days happily in each other’s company. Then we have the fatphobia. Constant little quips about characters' body size tied to their worth as a person. Most blatantly obvious when it comes to the MCs mother, who was unable to help her daughter with her drug addiction because she was fat (????)... which, literally makes no sense and is just fatphobic for the sake of being fatphobic. She loses weight later, though, so we know she and MC will heal their relationship. Great. Our protagonist is Mallory, a recovering drug addict, who has been taken on for the summer in an affluent suburban neighborhood to babysit a five-year-old, Teddy. Teddy is adorable, and his parents seem well-adjusted and friendly. They have a nice home in a well-off cul-de-sac.

He often draws himself, Mallory, and his family accompanied by an unseen imaginary friend. His imaginary friend appears in the creepiest way possible, and the childish way it is drawn in makes it more sinister to me. It appears the imaginary friend, Anya, is trying to warn Teddy about something that happened at the house in the past: her murder. How a child could normalize this, a haunting by a vengeful spirit, is beyond me. You can watch me review this book & all of the other 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards Winners here: https://youtu.be/fFKXJ1gsZA8 Education World has more than a dozen free hidden pictures that come right from Highlights Magazine. Something very strange is going on with Teddy and, as time goes on, even with Mallory. There is a supernatural feel to some events but who is going to believe Mallory, recovering drug addict? This story was full of twists and turns and was a very interesting buddy read with Jayme, DeAnn, and Susan. For some reason, I remembered the synopsis being different what is actually printed. Because of that, I missed subtle clues that normally would have been obvious to me, and I was distracted by other red herrings.

This is what the Maxwells' new babysitter Mallory is confronted with when she is employed to look after 5 year old Teddy. He has an imaginary friend called Anya who he talks to and loves to draw-- complete with long straggly hair and mouth open in a terrifying expression --but is Anya really imaginary? Or could she have something to do with Annie Bennett, the ghost said to haunt the guest cottage where Mallory is staying? En cualquier caso, el principal punto a favor (aparte de los dibujos) es que me ha mantenido muy interesado a lo largo de sus alrededor de 400 páginas. Siempre a la expectativa. No siempre he visto venir lo que iba a pasar, cosa que agradezco enormemente en este tipo de novelas. Por lo tanto, cuatro estrellas muy merecidas, porque ha tenido capítulos de cinco, pero también algunos de tres. De hecho, esperaba menos de lo que ofrece. Por lo que os la puedo recomendar. This novel is an absolute hot mess. It felt a bit preachy the way an after school special does. In all situations the absolute worst scenario happened every time. Overly dramatic and un realistic. This book is a house of cards, built upon flimsy right-wing dog whistles, hoping no one puts together the pieces to realize just how hateful it is.Fooled by the rating and GoodreadsBest of 2022 I jumped into this novel, expecting something good, something sensical. Boy, was I wrong.