Okay, so this is not exactly the birthday present Keats had in mind (no iPod?!), but when Dad parks a rented RV in the Dalinger's driveway, Keats piles in with the rest of his family -- and the manny, of course -- bound for the open road. From the big skies of farm country to the bright lights of Las Vegas, this, in typical manny fabulousness, is an all-American adventure filled with more Glamour-dos than Glamour-don'ts. But a stopover at the manny's childhood home is making the manny feel not so fabulous. Why can't his parents ever accept him for who he is? And Keats, at first, sees their point. Why does the manny always have to be so interesting?
Hit the road for more manny shenanigans, where it's all about Elton John, Diet Coke, and being brave enough to be yourself.
Review
Manny: a male nanny. That’s Matthew, the Elton John-loving Mary Poppins for the quirky kids of the adorably liberal Dalinger family. There’s baby sister Belly, whose conversational tic is to TALK IN CAPS. There’s Lulu, the often-overbearing older sister. And there’s spelling-bee champion Keats, the arch narrator of the first book in this young adult series, _The Manny Files_. In this installment, the family is on a road trip to celebrate Keats’ birthday - an RV odyssey winding across roadside America to Wyoming, where the flamboyant manny reveals a tougher cowboy side, reconciling his lifestyle with that of his rancher parents. Then it’s on to Las Vegas - and a gay wedding - for manny Matthew and the children’s Uncle Max. The series is aimed at ages 9 to 12, though Keats comes across more as a pint-sized teenage comic than a real kid. Burch’s books are charmers that ‘tween readers with a queer sense of humor - and grownups with a fondness for queeny references to TV and music of the ‘80s - can savor.
