What Does It Take to Be a Superior Nanny?

So a couple of years ago, I read a book with the world’s greatest babysitter. Seriously, Phoebe can babysit my bestekids any day. She’s awesome. You can read about her in Cathe Swanson’s Baggage Claim.

When you’ve found the best, who needs any more, right? Well, as any wise mother knows (and bestemors are just old and wise mothers, after all… really old. I begin the last year of my 40s this weekend! EEP!)… where was I? Oh, right.

Babysitters. One is never enough. You always need a backup—or twenty.

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Yesterday, I read Tutor, Nanny, Spit-up, Spy from The Accidental Cases of Emily Abbott. As promised, I read it with an eye to a “loved, hated, laughed, cried, recommended for” review, but I learned a few things I had to share.

What Does It Take to Be a Superior Nanny?

Well, having seven daughters, most of them who have either nannied, babysat, or both (one’s just not old enough yet), I’ve got an answer to that!

Grit.

Seriously. A good nanny needs grit. It’s not enough to know when and how to dial poison control. One needs more than regular and infant CPR. Cleaning up after yourself is a bonus, but moms want to know their kids will be alive and kicking when they get back home again.

And with the crazy stuff kids do sometimes, they need grit.

Forget the crazy stuff kids do. If Baggage Claim and Tutor, Nanny, Spit-up, Spy are to be believed, you need a nanny who can out-maneuver crazy adults! Never fear, these gals gotcha covered.

Quick thinking

I don’t even know how smart that thinking has to be. They just have to think quickly or the toddler will tumble down the stairs, the eight-year-old will swing from a chandelier in a perfect Tarzan imitation, and the bad guy will breach—wait. No spoilers. Needless to say, you want them to be able to prevent all of it.

Especially the bad guy thing.

A sense of humor.

No, really, you do. Let me tell you something. Kids are unpredictable. They say and do everything you’re sure they won’t and don’t do what you’re sure they will. The fact is, they have super-secret radar that picks up the most cringe-worthy ideas and they run with them. From asking if your boyfriend kisses you, to asking you to be their girlfriend, it all happens.

And if you can’t laugh over spilled milk, then you’re in the wrong business, sweetie.

Super-fun spy gear.

No wait, that’s only if you’re Emily Abbot. Speaking of Emily…

I think I just found the perfect nanny for my grandkids.

Who but Emily Abbot could make having an assassin out to get your father… fun? Well… for the reader it is.

In this next “accidental case,” Tutor, Nanny, Spit-Up, Spy , there was much to love, hate, laugh, and cry over… and much to recommend.

I loved how she didn’t know everything but managed to fumble her way through anyway, and I loved that I got a glimpse more of Brent’s background. I hated the same thing I always do—the fact that it had to end. (Psst… side note. I found out you can join some Patreon thing and get to read her next ones before anyone else! EEEP!)

I laughed at all the inside jokes… and can’t tell you what they were because you’ll either get it, or you won’t! And, I cried inside (it’s as close as I come to tears, folks) when betrayal happened. It’s always an ugly thing.

Recommended for people who think that Madeline and the Bad Hat would have been so much more fun with spies.

Okay, and for people who just can’t wait to read the next and then the next of a really fun series.

Case in point?

I finished this one and promptly read the next despite needing to get my own work done. Ahem.

Note: Tomorrow’s review book, A Spying We Will Go is on SALE today for just .99!!! If you’re not a KU reader, you wanna snag it while it’s cheap. I did. And I’m buying them in paperback. But at .99? Yep. MINE!

And if you missed yesterday’s review, HERE it is! Psst… don’t forget. Today is the last day with TWO reviews. You’ll get All In soon, but it was a good book, so there’s that.

Title: Tutor, Nanny, Spit-Up, Spy

Author: Perry Elizabeth Kirkpatrick

Synopsis: He’s a tutor and she’s a nanny… but not really.

Emily Abbott, coffee barista and accidental spy, is asked to fill in for an injured ICS agent. Intelligence suggests a guerrilla group is plotting to assassinate the president of a small South American country while he and his family are visiting the U.S., and that the assassin may actually be one of his protection detail.

Undercover as nanny to the four young Gonzalez children, Emily will be perfectly positioned to keep an eye on things and report back to ICS, the spy organization Brent Peterson works for. Emily and Brent–who is undercover as the children’s tutor–must navigate long-division, spit-up, arguments over toys, and suspicious guards to discover a plot that’s far more complicated and time-sensitive than they realized.