Cue the pretend drum-roll: Keats's parents have a big surprise. No, they're not having a new baby. It's -- wait for it, wait for it -- a family road trip!

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.

 

This book has been graded for interest at 8-12 years.

There are 240 pages in this book. This book was published 2008 by Simon & Schuster .

Christian Burch is a real-life manny, who derived much of his inspiration for this novel from his charges. A resident of Jackson, Wyoming, The Manny Files is his first novel. He shares his birthday with Adam Ant, Evgeni Plushenko, and Anna Wintour.