Just an interesting note. Christianna Brand and Edward Ardizzone were cousins and listened to this story told to them when they were children.

What a cute classic series. I hadn't seen the movie, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It's basically a compilation of short stories that are only loosely tied together. Other children's books that I've read from the same time period seem to follow a similar format. I loved how Nurse Matilda uses the children's own naughtiness to teach them a lesson about how to treat others and the proper way to behave. ( )

Cute stories, passed down from Christianna Brand's Grandfather, also told to her cousin Edward Ardizzone who illustrated the book.

The first in a trilogy of novels about a magical, but very ugly nanny named Nurse Matilda, who tames the unruly and extremely naughty Brown children with the help of her big black stick. Each time the children, whom the narrator tells us are too numerous to name, commit some especially obnoxious act, they find to their dismay that they cannot seem to stop doing whatever it was they shouldn’t have been doing in the first place. So it is that when they tip over backwards in their chairs, they find themselves stuck to the floor, feet in the air, for quite some time. When they pretend to get sick, they find that they truly are, and must suffer through Nurse Matilda’s medicines.

Although they slowly become less naughty, the Brown children are taught a final lesson when they threaten to run away, and find themselves doing so in earnest, without the ability to stop and rest. Nurse Matilda, who has grown progressively more beautiful as the children have become less naughty, departs in the end, as she is only able to stay with a family until the time that the children truly want her to be with them - then she must leave.

This title has a real sense of chaotic family fun, and the author even inserts a very naughty Christianna (fond childhood memories?), and has the story illustrated by her cousin, Edward Ardizzone. Originally published in 1964, it was reprinted in 2005, to coincide with the release of the movie Nanny McPhee, which offers a loose adaptation of the series. ( )

Brand, Christianna

Nurse Matilda: The Collected Tales
Illustrated by Edward Ardizonne. 2005. 300pp. $16.95 hc. Bloomsbury. 978-1-5823-4670-0. Grades 2-5

Mr. and Mrs. Brown have an enormous number of children, all of whom are very badly behaved. They constantly play pranks on their nannies and the house servants, driving them away in a steady stream. Finally, the employment agency refuses to send any more servants, insisting that the Browns need Nurse Matilda. Shortly thereafter, Nurse Matilda appears at the door, carrying a large black stick. And when she pounds that stick on the floor, magical things begin to happen...maybe even magical enough that the Brown children will learn to behave. If this sounds familiar, it's because the Nurse Matilda books are the fictional inspiration for the Nanny McPhee films, though the book is more episodic than the films. Small minimalist black and white line drawings decorate the book, which belongs to the 'magical comeuppance' genre also populated by the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle stories, in which misbehaving children learn their lesson through carefully applied magic. Fans of Edward Eager, E. Nesbit, or Betty MacDonald should enjoy this book. ( )