Rating: 
Summary: So, this is how the other half parent their children.
Review: This book makes me glad that I don't have any money. (or rather my kids should be glad I don't). This novel is funny, tragic, and moving. The authors make Nanny so real you want to go to central park and tell her to run for her life! While I hope that some of this was exaggerated, it was great fun. Kudos to these fresh new authors!
Rating: 
Summary: A Child's Longing
Review: After only reading the first 50 pages of this book, I am enthralled. No, I do not believe that this is the best writing ever, but the narrator is only 21 or 22 years old, in her college years and despite her desire to do right by the child, she is still proceeding with her own crushes and social life. I disagree with those who say the character of Grayer is under-developed. I think the writers are dead-on with their characterizations of the emotionally neglected four year old. The fact that by the third or fourth day he has begun to accept Nanny shows how desperate the child is for attention and human contact; he really doesn't know who Nanny is, but is willing to listen to her and look to her for answers.I wanted to stand up and cheer when Nanny gave it back to the Mr. X's-in-training who think she is porking the father! I think this book is a commentary on our society's view of motherhood, our growing misunderstanding of child development and the impossible quest for perfection and status. I recommend this book for a great summer read or something light, quick and fast.
Rating: 
Summary: Overated!
Review: I took this book on vacation with me expecting to read a fun and mindless book. It was mindless that's for sure! I kept waiting for something exciting to happen...but it never did. I got the point, the rich folks never take care of their kids, the nanny always did, the nanny was treated as less than human...but give me more!!!
Rating: 
Summary: waste of time
Review: I could hardly stand to read the few chapters that I made it through. The arrogance of the writer is incredibly off-putting. I'm sure that the stories are based in reality, but the nanny herself was so cocky and fancied herself so superior to the families I couldn't bear to go on.
Rating:
Summary: Wickedly funny, hard-to-put-down
Review: If you want to know how the upper class behave when they really have no class, read this book. My profession brings me in contact with the nannies and the outrageous rich inconsiderate Midwestern versions of the Manhattan boobs portrayed in this book. These people really exist and this stuff really happens. This should be required reading for anyone planning to work for the rich including babysitters, secretaries and domestic staff.
Rating:
Summary: It's Not Any Better In Manhattan Beach!
Review: I purchased this book for my daughters, both college students and "part-time" nannies themselves. They even work in Manhattan -- Beach, CA that is! So much of this book could have been written by them, including the mom who wanted my daughter to ditch class so that she could babysit, the mom who asked my daughter to stop by on her way to school in the morning to take her son a few blocks to school so the mom could sleep in or go shopping, the mom who kept forgetting to pay my daughter for 3 weeks and then couldn't understand why she quit! I highly recommend this book to any woman "who just loves being a mom" but insists on hiring a nanny to do all the mothering. And when she doesn't think she resembles Mrs. X -- she needs to re-read! My reason for 4 stars and not 5 is that the author needs to grow some backbone before she slides onto the floor! I would have left Mrs. X's employ on about Day 3. Now, fortunately, the authors will never again be forced to give so much for so little in return. I hope they know that there is a West Coast sisterhood out there with stories of their own!
Rating:
Summary: More could have been done with such ripe material
Review: The best thing about this book is its subject matter. Unfortunately, the writing is so amateurish it made me wince at times. Also, contrary to what some of the reviews say, the authors do not always "get the details right." Furthermore, they should have worked harder at making the narrator a little more three-dimensional, a little less high-minded and admirable (likewise her oh-so-lovable yet totally faceless parents and grandmother). I found excruciating the sections in which the narrator encounters nannies from less privileged backgrounds and lets us know that -- wait! you'll never guess! -- they are people, too. This revelation seems very self-congratulatory on the part of the authors. It may be news for some, but not for the rest of us.
Rating:
Summary: Offensively bland
Review: This read like a poorly written young adult book, with all the hand-wringing, the forced lingo, the requisite "hottie," and the predictable plot line. It reminded me of a lesser caliber "Babysitters Club" novel. Or, as the title suggests, a string of melodramatic diary entries, the kind where the writer starts off by describing what she wore to school and how many times she passed Bobby in the hall that day. It was as if the writers made a bulletpoint list of "shocking" X-family revelations, then thought up some superficial sentences to fill in the spaces. Was the point for Nan to remain completely blanched and characterless in the mind of the reader, as she was in the mind of the X family? I don't think the writers would think that deeply, frankly. As a 23-year-old female, I'm the target audience for this title, but empathy was nowhere in sight for me as I read. Maybe I missed it in between my lids drooping and my eyes rolling.
Rating: 
Summary: The Nanny Diaries
Review: As a Mother of two toddler boys I did not find this book in the least bit "hilarious". Although entertaining, I was overcome by sadness over the plight of poor Grayer. A boy who will grow up unloved and ignored by his parents, feeling abandoned by any one who did pay attention or actually care for him as Nanny did. I looked at this story as a tragic tale of horrendous parenting and a very lonely attention starved little boy. I can't get the vision of Nanny leaving Grayer in the night on Nantucket as he screamed for her out of my mind. What's hilarious about that?
Rating:
Summary: Perfect beach book...
Review: If you are looking for great literature, this is not it. However, if you are looking for a fun, funny mockery of the rich, than buy this book. This book tells the tale of Nanny, who takes a job looking after a four year old, Grayer. The boy's father is busy working and having an affair while his mother keeps herself busy with shopping, going to Bliss, committees and basically anything that does not involve spending time with her child. As time goes by, Mrs X asks more and more of Nanny, so much so that she starts neglecting her school work and social life. Although everybody tells her to quit, she can't because of her feelings for the little boy. The writing of this book seems a bit amaturish at many times and the characters besides the X family are not really developed. Even Nanny comes off shallow in a point where she uses Grayer as an excuse to flirt with the H.H. (Harvard Hottie) that lives upstairs. Her perfect relationships with her grandmother and parents were unrealistic and a little too convenient but its really no matter. The focus of the book is how selfish people can be when it comes to their children, and while in this case the parents were rich, this is something that is true of all people. This book seems to be an exaggeration at some points and while the authors put a disclaimer in the beginning, something tells us that it isn't too far from fact. I know myself, I've worked for a black limo company in NYC and have heard these Park Ave lawyers and such flip out if their cars are even a minute late, its scary to think about what their children are subjected to if they are rejected from the elementry school the parents wish for them. This book is very sad when you really think about it because it is obviously very deeply rooted in fact and you have to pity these children.
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