Goodnight Nanny-Cam
"Lizzy Ratner is a contributor to the Nation, reporting on serious subjects like politics, education and the economy. Jen Nessel is also a journalist, a former political organizer and the communications coordinator at the Center for Constitutional Rights. They are the mothers of Elias, 4, and Oscar, 8, and the authors of “Goodnight Nanny-Cam,” a new parody of the much-parodied children’s book (remember “Goodnight Keith Moon”?) that was first born as an essay in The New Yorker two years ago to skewer the affectations and anxieties of modern parenting.
A sampling: “Goodnight friends with unusual names ... goodnight brain development games....”
“It’s no ‘Beowulf,’ ” Ms. Ratner wrote in an email recently. But if you look closely at Sara Pinto’s illustrations, you will see “Beowulf” on a bookshelf. And Nanny is reading a book titled, “The Wealth of Nannies.”
Ms. Nessel believes that their parody performs a crucial social function, a reminder to alpha parents everywhere to just chill out. As she likes to say, “Our kids have nothing to lose but their Goldman Sachs bonuses.” - The New York Times
[...] Goodnight Nanny-Cam doesn't try to simply ride the style of Goodnight Moon, it cleverly samples the aesthetics of the original while striking out on its own – thanks to the brilliant artwork provided by Sara Pinto. That's what makes this book an original. I chased up the authors and bagged this great interview with Elizabeth 'Lizzy' Ratner and Jen Nessel.[...]
"How did you get the book so whimsically illustrated?
Luck led us to the amazingly talented and fantastically funny illustrator, Sara Pinto! Sara is a genius and a delight, with a ripe sense of humor to top it all off. She got the silliness of modern parenting right away—the preciousness, the excesses—and began building on it as soon as she read the text. In fact, she was the one who came up with the inspired idea of embellishing each picture with all kinds of hidden visual jokes—from the solar system mobile with the star in the center saying “Me” to the list of emergency numbers on the blackboard that include doctor, police and Thai take out. And happily for us, Sara was game to bring us into her process and let us share our own jokes and ideas. We spent a lot of time cracking each other up over Skype. (Sara lives in Scotland, so in-person meetings weren’t an option.)" - Baby Does NYC
"What fun there is in the cartoonish illustrations by Sara Pinto, who packs almost as much visual wit into the background of her work as Bill Elder used to in the old issues of Mad ..." - The East Hampton Star
"Goodnight Moon has been hilariously updated for the modern parent. In the green-certified room there was a smart phone…” - Buzzfeed
"So what might you find in this book [...] For one thing, you might find a bit of yourself. Oh, sure, you’ll laugh at first. Then you’ll realize that you have half these products in your own well-thought-out nursery." - Amy Joyce, Washington Post.
"When the text of Goodnight Nanny-cam appeared online in the New Yorker’s “Shouts & Murmurs” column, it garnered 100,000 hits and more than 15,000 Facebook likes in a matter of days. Filled with sly references to BPA-free bottles, Baby Einstein DVDs, and toddler tutors, Jen Nessel and Liz Ratner’s send-up of the beloved children’s classic wittily skewers our modern culture of over-parenting. Parodies of Goodnight Moon are always popular, and Goodnight Nanny-cam is a gorgeously illustrated gift that’s guaranteed to have alpha parents everywhere laughing—and cringing—in recognition." - Amazon review