The Manny Files (review)

When the Dalinger family, with its obstreperous four kids, gets a new nanny who calls himself "the manny," third-grader and narrator Keats is thrilled with the charismatic and exuberant new figure in his life. His oldest sister, Lulu, is appalled, however, and she spends the ensuing months cringing at the manny's interactions and documenting his "transgressions" in a document known as "The Manny Files." Over the course of the next several months, Keats weathers the death of his beloved grandmother, tries to find an identity at school apart from just being Lulu's little brother, withstands constant needling by an unpleasant classmate, and, most of all, hopes fervently that Lulu fails at her attempt to get the manny fired. In its drive for humor, the book plays fast and loose with Keats' understanding level so that he's at times precociously informed but more often comically misconstruing things (though he can visually identify the designer Halston and correctly employ the word "felon," he confuses "infection" and "affection"), and adults may be better able than youngsters to laugh at a story wherein the joke tends to be on the kids. The portrayal of the Auntie Mame-esque manny is also highly idealized, and the romance of the beloved domestic with a family member (it's obvious to the reader if not to Keats until the very end that the manny is involved with Keats' uncle Max) is a fairly well-worn plot trope. The madcap effervescence of life with the manny (and, before her decease, eccentric Grandma) is nonetheless a richly textured and alluring vision, and the book wisely doesn't trumpet its resolutions to Keats' dilemmas, instead allowing Lulu's gradual thawing toward the manny and Keats' eventual truce with the bullying Craig to flow along with the many other events in the episodic narrative. Those who find it hard to resist a series of whimsical adventures with a colorful character may wish to join Keats' household.