The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks

In March 1932, the twenty-month old son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh was kidnapped from his crib and taken out the window by means of a ladder. This story is a novelization of this event from the perspective of Charlie’s nanny, Betty Gow. As the story opens, Betty is headed to interview for the position with the Lindberghs. After she is hired, we experience her life with Charlie, the Lindberghs and get insight into the experiences of those working in service positions for the wealthy in the 1930s.

As a true crime podcast aficionado, I knew the basic facts of the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr., but this book brought it all to life. Telling the story through Betty’s eyes, the person who spent more time with Charlie than anyone else and was the last to see him and the one to discover he was missing, made so much sense. We were really able to experience what the household experienced and the scrutiny the police, but even more the media and general public, put Betty under. As a reader, we know how much Betty has done to care for Charlie and we feel her anguish at being accused of the unthinkable. I thought the way Mariah Fredericks wove well-researched historical facts in with plausible fictionalized conclusions was perfection. I also loved her end notes about the real Betty Gow and the Fiction vs. Facts of her story.

Check out The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks for yourself at the Library (https://catalog.lclibs.org/polaris/search/title.aspx…).