Rating: 
Summary: Terrific
Review: I have had this title on "hold" at my library for so long that I finally gave up and bought it. It was worth the money. I finished the book in four hours. It is engrossing and fast-paced, and gives you a peek into the ridiculous lives of the ultra-rich. I liked Nanny, but I was dissapointed that she didn't tell Mrs. X off. I would've loved to slap Mrs. X silly.
The only other bad thing was the ending: my heart broke for Grayer.
Rating:
Summary: This is the truth!!
Review: I worked as a nanny for 10 years; 10 different families. This book is my life all rolled into one book. Yes, I did have some nice families, but for the most part I had families just like Mr/Mrs X. It brought back a lot of memories. I loved the book because it gave people on the outside a chance to see what nannies go through with each family and the weird things they request of their nannies. (I had to cleanout an attic once, and rake/mow the lawn, no these are NOT normal requests to make of a nanny). Mrs X sending nanny through NYC to "fetch" items and not give details to what she wants is an experince I will always remember as I had a simliar wild goose chase.To anyone that has a nanny or will have a nanny, read this book!! Hopefully, you will not see yourself in the pages.
Rating: 
Summary: Isn't Anyone Normal?
Review: I enjoyed this book, but I feel it left a big hole in the whole nanny/family/child situation. There have to be some families that hire nannies that are not as dysfunctional as the ones portrayed in this book, and I don't mean just the Xes.. We get a brief glimpse of one, Caroline et al., when the Xes go to Nantucket; but I think that if the authors had given us another nanny/family/child situation as a point of comparison it would have made the whole thing a bit more believable. But then maybe there are no healthy families that hire nannies. If there are, why are they not screaming?
Rating:
Summary: I know people like this
Review: I never babysat for people like the Xes, but I've been treated exactly this way by people -- never mind my advanced degrees. Knowing people like the Xes made the reading experience almost spooky, particularly as Mrs. X continually blames everyone but herself for problems of her own origin. The book accurately depicts the singleminded selfishness of people who should never be parents. It isn't great literature -- but I wasn't under the illusion I was reading Dostoyevsky anyway. I enjoyed it for what it is.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely funny
Review: Nanny gets a job with Mr. and Mrs. X. She is now in charge of their son Grayer. This book is about the life of many nannies in NYC, when they are given the job of being mothers and fathers because the actual parents are too busy to pay attention to their kids. The books is funny, sad and happy. It is a great book to read.
Rating: 
Summary: Borrow it from a library, don't buy it
Review: Being a New Yorker, I was expecting a juicy, behind-the-scenes expose of NYC's upper crust Nanny underground. Instead, this book is fluffy, uber-fictional, and wanting desperately to be part of the Bridget Jones chick-lit genre, only to end up failing miserably. First of all, you are expecting the Xes to be complete slave drivers. 90% of the way through the book, they are simply DETACHED characters. Not whip-cracking, not control-freaking, not tantrum-throwing. I kept going, "What is so possibly horrible about the X'es?" Sure, they don't spend time with their son. Sure, Mrs. X is very particular about certain things. But they don't provide much of an driving impetus to create tension and friction between Nan and the Xes, resulting in a pretty jolly relationship throughout most of the book. Is this normal? No way. Majority of nannies in NYC are black, latino, filipina, or other non-whites. And guess what? I've seen them treated horribly. Screamed at. Demanded at. But Nan is white. True, she isn't treated well by her employers. They are difficult. But your average soap opera will provide 4x more scandal and drama than this book, which is really low on the "oh my gosh, you screwed me!" scale. When Nan finds out that Mrs. X was once Mr. X's mistress, she is utterly shocked and the book signals this as a "climactic" moment. Uhm, excuse me? This is 2003. We've seen TV shows with more marital scandals and twists, which don't even faze us. Scandal, Schmandal. Most of the problems Nan encounters are quite tame when compared to some truly arresting stories from nyc nannies working for truly bitchy and vengeful high society women. Now that would make for a REALLY good "Nanny Diaries". What also made me groan was "H.H." the "Harvard Hottie" that Nan has her eyes on. She simply whimpers like a 10-yr old girl when seeing him , and this subplot is just wrought with Sweet Valley High-ness. Trying to make this a Jane Green/Helen Fielding worthy satire, the scenes are peppered with "AHHHH!! HE'S KISSING ME!!!!!!!" <---taken directly from one of the chapters) type quotes. Not only is this a poor attempt at creating a colloquial girl-bonding moment, it's just bad. Junior-high school bad. I was really, really disappointed with this book. Given the subject matter, the authors could have dug a lot further and gotten much deeper in exploring the relationships between the family and nanny while still being funny. Instead, they stay superficial and fluffy; their only redeeming moments are the tender moments being with the kids (which also gets annoying after a while too). Not worth wasting your hard-earned money on.
Rating:
Summary: I can relate....being a former Nanny....
Review: .....since I once worked in the incredibly damanding world of nannying I can completely relate to this book in more ways than I'd would like to admit. The writers do a great job bringing all of the complex aspects of this "career" into the book. One disappointment I have is the fact that I didn't come up with the idea of writing a book about my nanny experiences first! I suggest this book to anyone who would like to see how a somewhat typical "wealthy" Upper East side family lives.
Rating:
Summary: Poor Little Rich Boy
Review: While I appreciated this book and found it hard to put down, I must agree with the reviewer from Bethesda -- I never laughed. This book was imaginative, observant and perhaps witty, but NOT funny. The neglect of Grayer/Grover and the exploitation of domestic help was highly credible, but not amusing in the slightest. Yes, I believe there are people like the X's, people who are simply too busy to care for their children. And it's important to note that this is not a couple where both work out of economic necessity and an honest desire to give their child a wonderful life. The X's see Grayer only as an extension of themselves and a reflection of their lives, just like the furnishings in their apartment. I was grateful for the glimpse into a life that is different than mine, and my heart literally ached for Grayer. And Caitlin, Connie and Nanny, too, but most of all, Grayer. God bless all the poor little rich sons and daughters of the affluent.
Rating: 
Summary: Could use a good editor and a little less exaggeration
Review: I was a nanny for 11 months and recognized some of the characters in this book. The writing itself was poor and I couldn't believe the characters were named "Nanny" and "Mr and Mrs X" (and who could forget Ms Chicago!) which, in my opinion, is unimaginative. I got frustrated with Nanny's spinelessness but can complete understand how she could get sucked in to this family and pretty soon was doing all sorts of things not related to child care. Overall, this book was ok but definitely could have been better. Those who have not been nannies may think the situations were contrived but I think they rang true (though slightly exaggerated).
Rating:
Summary: Children Stuck in the Middle (as always!)
Review: This book is a classic view of how children in high-income homes get stuck in the middle.
Nanny has to live around stupid, minute, ridiculous rules with a high-maintenance wife who hired her out of the blue, a husband ("Mr. X") who probably does not even love the child or the wife and give this poor child (Grayer) some sense of stability and love before they fire her out of the blue and pass the child onto another nanny who is going to have to fill the gap and try to give this child some love again! This is a classic insiders view of the NY Nanny-Ghetto of underpaid women who try and give these children some stability from their f-ed-up parents --- total beach book but a great read!
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