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(Paperback - First Edition)
Reader Rating: (182 ratings)
Detailed Rating: "Rainy Days" See All
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The #1 New York Times Bestseller!
“Diabolically funny.” –The New York Times
“A National Phenomenon.” -Newsweek
Wanted:
One young woman to take care of four-year-old boy. Must be cheerful, enthusiastic and selfless—bordering on masochistic. Must relish sixteen-hour shifts with a deliberately nap-deprived preschooler. Must love getting thrown up on, literally and figuratively, by everyone in his family. Must enjoy the delicious anticipation of ridiculously erratic pay. Mostly, must love being treated like fungus found growing out of employers Hermès bag. Those who take it personally need not apply.
Who wouldn’t want this job? Struggling to graduate from NYU and afford her microscopic studio apartment, Nanny takes a position caring for the only son of the wealthy X family. She rapidly learns the insane amount of juggling involved to ensure that a Park Avenue wife who doesn’t work, cook, clean, or raise her own child has a smooth day.
When the Xs marriage begins to disintegrate, Nanny ends up involved way beyond the bounds of human decency or good taste. Her tenure with the X family becomes a nearly impossible mission to maintain the mental health of their four-year-old, her own integrity and, most importantly, her sense of humor. Over nine tense months, Mrs. X and Nanny perform the age-old dance of decorum and power as they test the limits of modern-day servitude.
“[Nanny is] Mary Poppins channeling Dorothy Parker.” -Time
“Impossible to put down.” –Vogue
“McLaughlin and Kraus... [have a] carefullycalibrated sense of compassion and delicious sense of the absurd.” -Entertainment Weekly
[Nanny is] Mary Poppins channeling Dorothy Parker.
More Reviews and RecommendationsNicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin write together in New York City.
Reader Rating:
See Detailed Ratings
February 06, 2010: Couldn't put it down, but was all out horrified by the reasons these woman choose to have children, the way in which they choose (or so choose not) to raise them, and the lengths at which they will go to limit contact with their own offspring.
Nan (i.e. Nanny) is a stronger character than I, as chapter2 I would have told Mrs. X just what I thought about her and where she could shove her soy products!I Also Recommend: The Devil Wears Prada, This Little Mommy Stayed Home, Confessions of a Shopaholic (Shopaholic Series #1).
Reader Rating:
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September 29, 2009: I enjoyed it. . .it was an easy read and entertaining. I found the X's very annoying, which was the point, but it made it very frustrating at times. It was hard not to fall in love with Grayer, and my heart broke for him at the end.
Wanted:
One young woman to take care of four-year-old boy. Must be cheerful, enthusiastic and selfless—bordering on masochistic. Must relish sixteen-hour shifts with a deliberately nap-deprived preschooler. Must love getting thrown up on, literally and figuratively, by everyone in his family. Must enjoy the delicious anticipation of ridiculously erratic pay. Mostly, must love being treated like fungus found growing out of employers Hermès bag. Those who take it personally need not apply.
Who wouldn’t want this job? Struggling to graduate from NYU and afford her microscopic studio apartment, Nanny takes a position caring for the only son of the wealthy X family. She rapidly learns the insane amount of juggling involved to ensure that a Park Avenue wife who doesn’t work, cook, clean, or raise her own child has a smooth day.
When the Xs marriage begins to disintegrate, Nanny ends up involved way beyond the bounds of human decency or good taste. Her tenure with the X family becomes a nearly impossible mission to maintain the mental health of their four-year-old, her own integrity and, most importantly, her sense of humor. Over nine tense months, Mrs. X and Nanny perform the age-old dance of decorum and power as they test the limits of modern-day servitude.
[Nanny is] Mary Poppins channeling Dorothy Parker.
...the details, devastating as they are, ring true, making this [book]...impossible to put down.
...the wicked fascination of this novel lies in all the wacky tidbits about life in the social stratosphere....very funny...
...diabolically funny...
This bestselling debut novel by two former nannies parodies the lifestyles of wealthy New Yorkers. Mrs. X, the pampered wife of a nearly absent husband, impulsively hires Nanny to take care of her son after meeting her on the street. Over the next nine months, Nanny's life becomes entangled with the Xs and their woefully ignored son, Grayer. Though hired as part-time help, Nanny is soon working not only full time, but overtime. Narrator Julia Roberts takes advantage of every comedic moment in this entertaining production.
—Rochelle O'Gorman
This bestselling debut novel by two former nannies parodies the lifestyles of wealthy New Yorkers. Mrs. X, the pampered wife of a nearly absent husband, impulsively hires Nanny to take care of her son after meeting her on the street. Over the next nine months, Nanny's life becomes entangled with the Xs and their woefully ignored son, Grayer. Though hired as part-time help, Nanny is soon working not only full time, but overtime. Narrator Julia Roberts takes advantage of every comedic moment in this entertaining production.
McLaughlin and Kraus spent a combined eight years nannying for wealthy families in New York City. What they witnessed has driven them to write an amusingly cutthroat novel based on their experiences. The main character named Nan, of course is nanny to four-year-old Grayer. Mrs. X, Grayer's mother and Nan's boss, is a snob of the highest order, spending so much time shopping and gossiping that she doesn't have a spare second for her child. Nan, however, is called upon to become Grayer's stand-in mom on countless occasions. Some of these episodes are hilarious, as when Nan has to dress in a full-size Teletubby outfit that matches Grayer's. And some are horribly sad, as when Grayer is ill and his own mother couldn't care less, leaving Nan to stay up all night with the feverish child. Nan has to ferry Grayer to countless lessons, make him meals of steamed organic kale and tofu, and protect him from the wrath of his uncaring parents. Looking through Nan's eyes into the lives of Manhattan's rich is a lot of fun she's biting. Film rights have already been sold to Miramax. Look for this to be a popular title. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/01.] Beth Gibbs, Davidson, NC Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Rich parents, neglected brats, an overworked caregiver. First-novelists and former nannies McLaughlin and Kraus get the details right: in acid asides, they limn the decor, trendy therapies, and the pretensions of social-climbing Manhattanites. It's the woebegone children who often suffer, according to the authors' young heroine (her name: Nanny), a child-development major at NYU. Mrs. X, a perfectly groomed Park Avenue princess, hires Nanny to care for four-year-old Grayer, and the girl does her best to comply with a long list of rules. The boy is rarely permitted to play inside the luxurious apartment, eat anything made with refined flour, and so forth. Mrs. X is too busy with committee work and salon treatments (and keeping an eye on her philandering husband) to do much mothering. Though Grayer is a holy terror, Nanny has a way with kids-and a family of her own to give advice when the tot falls ill. Racking cough? High fever? When Mrs. X is away at a spa and has left orders that she's not to be disturbed for any reason, Nanny's mother diagnoses croup. But "tragedy" strikes again: Nanny is hoping for a lavish Christmas present but all she gets is earmuffs. When she isn't microwaving tofu snacks or teaching Grayer the intricacies of the Hokey Pokey, Nanny indulges in daydreams about the Harvard hottie she's been flirting with in the elevator-and participates in obligatory gripe-and-gossip fests with her girlfriends. Should she tell Mrs. X about the black thong panties that Mr. X's bitchy mistress left behind? And how about going with them to Nantucket? There's nothing to buy there except candles and nautical trinkets, and her employers are sure to be at each other's throats. When Nanny quits, she tells off Grayer's indifferent parents at last, having discovered they they've been spying on her through a nannycam concealed in a stuffed bear. Sometimes farcical, largely sincere-and ultimately trivial.
Loading...2. Considering the harsh and fickle treatment Nan receives from Mrs. X, why do you think she stays with the family?
3. What kind of person do you think Grayer will grow up to be?
4. Why do you think that Nanny told Mrs. X about Mr. X's mistress before she left for good? Was it to protect her or was it for revenge?
5. If you were Nanny's family (parents, grandmother, boyfriend) would you support her decision to work for the X's? Consider her almost missing her graduation, her time constraints with finding a new apartment, as well as her emotional health and unfair compensation.
6. Would you have spoken your mind on the teddy bear tape recorder before leaving the X's household for good? Why do you think Nanny erased her initial outburst? How long would you be able to hold your tongue if found in a comparable work situation?
7. If you had the money that the X's had and could enrich your child's life with exotic foods, violin lessons, private schooling and French classes, would you and why? What do you think is appropriate for a child and what crosses the line?
8. How much responsibility should a nanny take in raising her employer's child?
9. Do you think Nanny will stay in the child-care profession after this experience?
10. Do you think this book is depressing or hopeful? How much is realistic vs. imaginary (a stretch) in your opinion?
11. If you employ domestic help, has this book changed your dialogue and/or view of that relationship? What rules of nannying would you require if you were hiring someone to take care of your child?
12. Why do you think this book has struck a chord with readers at this time?
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See a Spanish-language edition of this title.
Hear our exclusive audio interview with Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus (11:04).
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