How, exactly, does a nanny, a book project, and IWG go hand in hand? Let me tell you. No, I am not Mary Poppins (who is, by the way, an extremely famous book character), but I am a nanny, who started a book project for my charges. The project started last year, fell apart, started up again, and since then, has grown bigger than I could have ever imagined. Exclusive to IWG, this is the story of The Nanny Book Project. You may want to read this – I’ve had some massive responses, from Royalty to Heads of States, Oscar and Grammy winners to Tony and Golden Globe winners.
The children were soon asking where these characters had come from, and what people’s favourite children’s books were. It was soon decided we’d write a letter to Kate and Will. Within four weeks, we had a response, via Kate’s personal assistant. As it’s now public knowledge, Kate’s favourite book is Anne of Green Gables. I decided then that I’d see if I could turn this into a project, finding out what people’s favourite children’s books were, and why. Out of the nearly 100 people I contacted, all mainly friends and family, only about 20 people responded, the majority of the answers from close friends and family. I gave up, due to some discouragement, after that and didn’t even think about it for the next several months. There didn’t seem to be any point.
I decided, around the end of March of this year, to maybe give the project another shot. If I got shot down again, I decided that this would be the end of it. Thus, The Nanny Book Project took flight. Since then, approximately 150 people have been contacted, and there have been numerous responses, from friends and family, to movie and television stars, musicians, heads of state, royalty, to West End and Broadway stars.
Other people who have responded include Peri Gilpin (Fraiser), Betty Buckley (Broadway star), Ricki Lake (TV talk show host), three members of the children’s group The Wiggles, Nigel Slater (TV personality), Susan Egan (Broadway star, voice of Meg in Disney’s Hercules), Jillian Michaels, Kathy Najimy (Hocus Pocus), and Nicolas Dromard (Broadway star, currently on tour with Jersey Boys in North America). Within the past week, there have been letters from a current Prime Minister, a famous author and an extremely famous actress who people from my generation grew up with.
If you’d like to join in, send us an email at [email protected], or send us a tweet to @I'mWithGeek and use the hashtag #nannybookproject. Make sure to come back next week to find out what the IWG staff picked as their favourite children’s books.