The Manny Files by Christian Burch

Original.

There are varying degrees of funny books. Some are just a little funny and one corner of your mouth curls up once in a while. Some books are moderately funny and you find yourself snickering once in a while - mostly with a hard breath out your nose. Some books you actually chuckle at. And very rarely do you find a book where you actually laugh out loud. The Manny Files was one of those books. I actually laughed out loud, like, 2 times! The rest of the time I was definitely chuckling. Funny stuff...

Keats Dalinger is a completely forgettable third-grader (according to himself). His oldest sister, Lulu, is great at everything. Keats' teacher even keeps a closet full of her projects to use as examples. His second sister India, is a young fashionista. Everyone loves her sense of style. And his baby sister Belly (full name Mirabelle) is crazy, in the cute way. Keats isn't good at anything, is the shortest in his class, and gets teased by the popular boy in his class. The bright spot in Keats' life is the manny (the male nanny). The manny does fun and exciting things and wears cashmere socks! When Keats' parents go to Mexico for their anniversary the manny hangs pinatas from each kids' ceiling and wears a sombrero. When Keats' Grandmother breaks her hip and comes to stay with the family, she quickly befriends the Manny. Every day when Grandma watches her soap operas, the Manny dresses her up as a different character and they reenact the plots. The conflict comes when Lulu decides she hates the manny and keeps a notebook called "The Manny Files" to write down all the crazy things he does. Keats has to learn to stick up for himself and the manny to save him. Although, I wouldn't call that the main plot. I think this book is mainly about Keats learning to find himself.

One of my favorite parts of this story happens after Keats' class goes on a field trip to the local swimming pool. While Keats is swimming the kid that bullies him steals his Scooby Doo underwear. On their way back to school, the bully wears the underpants on his head - and of course Keats' mother has written him name on them in big black letters so everyone can see whose they are. (Of course I thought this was disgusting. Doesn't that kid realize those are DIRTY underpants? Gross!) That night Keats tells the manny everything that happened and of course the manny makes everything better:

"When I walked through the living room, Grandma's bed was empty and her wheelchair was gone. She was in the dining room with everyone else. They screamed, "Surprise!!!" when I walked in. Everybody was sitting around the dining-room table. Grandma was wheeled up next to Lulu.

They all had underwear on their heads.

Even Lulu, who hates the word underwear.

Mom had on a pair of Dad's boxers.

Dad had one of Mom's bras.

Lulu had a pair of India's flowered panties.

India had Lulu's Tuesday underwear.

Belly had DecapiTina's little white ones hanging off one ear.

Grandma had on one of Belly's nighttime pull-up diapers.

The manny had a pair of boxer briefs.

And Uncle Max was wearing a pair of Grandma's big lacy ones, the ones that my sisters had held up and laughed at when they unpacked Grandma's suitcase.

The manny handed me a pair of my own Scooby Doo underwear to wear on my head.

We ate the entire dinner that way. Dad even answered the door with Mom's bra on his head. It was Lucy, our next-door neighbor, selling Girl Scout Cookies.

He bought four boxes of Thin Mints."

I love it! And there are lots more laughable moments.

But even though it was funny, in the end, I'm not sure I can say I loved this book. There is suspicion through the whole book (for the reader, not Keats) that the manny is gay. Which - fine, whatever, but for a conservative like me, it almost seemed like the point of the book was to say that it's okay to be gay - gay people are more interesting. And I almost think the author was trying to show Keats as a little homosexual. I am not going to go into a discussion about it being okay to be gay, I just didn't like the attempt to persuade young readers. That is mom and dad's job, right?

So I would say, if you're looking for a good laugh, read The Manny Files. Just don't let your kids read it until you're ready for a conversation on homosexuality. :)