Nurse Matilda: The Collected Tales

This omnibus edition is comprised of all three Nurse Matilda books, as follows:
- Nurse Matilda
- Nurse Matilda Goes to Town
- Nurse Matilda Goes to Hospital

These stories provided the basis for the film, Nanny McFee, however, the film is somewhat different in plot.

These are very entertianing stories,

with perfect phrasing for reading aloud. I have come to them as an adult, but I would have loved them as a young child.

Any story set in period England about a magical woman coming to mind children will inevitably be compared to the Mary Poppins stories. I found the Nurse Matilda books lack the moral ambiguity of the Poppins books. Here, the crazy inventiveness belongs to the children, their imagination in mischief is far more interesting than Nurse Matilda's magic. The magic is consistent, the children are condemned to continue their mischief without stopping until they have sympathy (however temporary) for their victims.

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LibraryThing member benfulton

There's something very comforting about a formula series. You know more or less what's going to happen, but it's kind of interesting to see how it varies from time to time. But this series has a spectacular lack of artistry in its formula, to the point where the second and third books are so

completely similar to the first one, that there really isn't any point in reading them. It's a shame, because there were some different directions that could have been taken that might have made for some interesting sequels; but that didn't happen. The family is the same, Nurse Matilda is the same; each climax of the book is exactly identical, and a fair chunk of the wording is completely identical too. Read the first one, skip the rest.

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LibraryThing member kimcc

I saw the film Nanny McPhee first and really wanted to read the book it was based on. There are some important differences between the two, but the basic plot lines are the same. The book and film address class issues in multiple ways. The Browns are indebted to their Great-Aunt Adelaide who

promises to give them money in inheritance, but only if they do as she says. The Browns are of the same class as Adelaide but they still suffer from money issues. This can happen in upper classes where part of the family still lives an upper-class existence but doesn't have the means to support it. Part of the Browns' issues, of course, is the huge family. Another aspect of class that the book deals with is with the power (or lack of power) regarding the different levels of servants. Evangeline had been the family's put-upon tweeny-maid but is then taken by Aunt Adelaide to be raised in "proper" society. Evangeline is given clothes, education etc beyond her class, and she is released from her lower status within the servants as the one the other servants "put-upon."

This would be a fun book for teachers to read out loud a chapter a day. The story is funny and gentle. The story could lead to writing prompts asking students to write about their own bad habits. Each student could come up with their own "magical" cure to rid themselves of the bad habit...and they could come up with a realistic cure as well to try out.

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LibraryThing member jfoster_sf

"Once upon a time there was a huge family of children; and they were terribly, terribly naughty." The first book was great! The narration was perfectly funny and I just loved it. I think this book is best for reading aloud to young kids, they will love how naughty the children are and how Nurse

Matilda makes magic happen, and try to keep track of how many kids there are-- "There were so many of them (children) that I shan't even tell you their names but leave you to sort them out as you go along, and add up how many there were." When the book ends, all the children are now well behaved and no longer need Nurse Matilda, so she leaves to help another group of naughty children. How can there be two other books if the kids are good now? It turns out that in the second book, the kids have all but forgotten Nurse Matilda and are all naughty again! And their parents have adopted a ton of children so there are even more! Nurse Matilda comes back and the whole thing starts over again (with many of the same phrases and very similar scenarios.) I think that young kids might not mind the similarities and repetitive situations (maybe 5 and 6 year olds?) but I think older kids would get bored. I ended up not finishing book 2 and didn't bother with book 3, but I still love book 1 which is what my rating is based on.

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LibraryThing member Krumbs

I think it's best to stop after the first story in this series, mostly because the magical nanny who is supposed to be able to get kids to no longer be naughty doesn't seem able to make it stick. Books 2 and 3 have Nurse Matilda returning to the same family because they seem to forget how to not be

horrible children. Eh. The latter two books are also essentially copies of the first story. The same progression of events, the same lessons, the same caricatures.

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LibraryThing member kaitanya64

While this book seems like the perfect family read-aloud choice, we found it dragged a little. The premise is, perhaps a little dated. Modern kids don't generally excuse parents who have no clue what is going on in their own family, and fighting with servants isn't really within their experience.

LibraryThing member Auntie-Nanuuq

This is three books in one: "Nurse Matilda", "Nurse Matilda Goes to Town", & "Nurse Matilda Goes to the Hospital" from which the Nanny McPhee movies were based upon.

Utterly delightful and full of humor..... When your children are naughty and out of control...no other Nanny or Nurse will care for

them... You call upon Nurse Matilda.... Ugly as an Ogre and Sly as a Fox..... with a thump of her magical stick, children learn not only the words: "Please" & "Thank-you"; they learn to get out of bed on time; eat in a civilized manner; behave properly; do their studies with quiet intent; & to eat with proper table manners....

With each lesson learned, Nurse Matilda, miraculously looks less & less of an Ogre!

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