Nanny Mcphee: The Collected Tales of Nurse Matilda

Nurse Matilda #1-3

by Christianna Brand, Edward Ardizzone (Illustrator)

Mr and Mrs Brown are always having great difficulty with their numerous and incredibly naughty children. They try all the agencies but the nurses, governesses and nannies never stay long with the Brown children. 'The person you want is Nurse Matilda,' they are told. And when Nurse Matilda does arrive very strange things begin to happen. Brought together in one volume are the three remarkable tales of Nurse Matilda - Nurse Matilda, Nurse Matilda Goes to Town and Nurse Matilda Goes to Hospital. Having delighted generations of readers since their first publication in the sixties, the books have now formed the inspiration for the newly-released and fabulous Nanny McPhee, written and adapted for the big screen by Emma Thompson who stars as Nanny McPhee opposite Colin Firth as Mr Brown. This collection of stories from Christianna Brand is sure to charm and entertain all readers new and old.

Genres: Fantasy, Childrens, Fiction, Classics, Middle Grade, Humor, Media Tie In

382 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Christianna Brand (December 17, 1907 - March 11, 1988) was a crime writer and children's author. Brand also wrote under the pseudonyms Mary Ann Ashe, Annabel Jones, Mary Roland, and China Thomson.

She was born Mary Christianna Milne in 1907 in Malaya and spent her early years in India. She had a number of different occupations, including model, dancer, shop assistant and governess.

Her first novel, Death in High Heels, was written while Brand was working as a salesgirl. In 1941, one of her best-loved characters, Inspector Cockrill of the Kent County Police, made his debut in the book Heads You Lose. The character would go on to appear in seven of her novels. Green for Danger is Brand’s most famous novel. The whodunit, set in a World War 2 hospital, was adapted for film by Eagle-Lion Films in 1946, starring Alastair Sim as the Inspector. She dropped the series in the late 1950s and concentrated on various genres as well as short stories. She was nominated three times for Edgar Awards: for the short stories "Poison in the Cup" (EQMM, Feb. 1969) and "Twist for Twist" (EQMM, May 1967) and for a nonfiction work about a Scottish murder case, Heaven Knows Who (1960). She is the author of the children's series Nurse Matilda, which Emma Thompson adapted to film as Nanny McPhee (2005).

Her Inspector Cockrill short stories and a previously unpublished Cockrill stage play were collected as The Spotted Cat and Other Mysteries from inspector Cockrill's Casebook, edited by Tony Medawar (2002).

Series:
* Nurse Matilda
* Inspector Charlesworth
* Inspector Chucky
* Inspector Cockrill

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once upon a time there were a mother and father called Mr and Mrs Brown and they had a huge family of children; and all the children were terribly, terribly naughty.
Christianna Brand, Nurse Matilda Goes To Town

'Your children need me.' ...
'The more they don't want me, ' said Nurse Matilda, 'the more they must need me. That is the way I work. When my children don't want me, but do need me: then I must stay. When they no longer need me, but they do want me: then I have to go. '
Christianna Brand, Nurse Matilda

These are very cute stories for the little ones, esp read out loud; but I must say that I liked the movie Nanny McPhee waaay better. The movie starring Emma Thompson, Maggie Smith and Colin Firth took the best bits from the stories and adapted them into a fun story.

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I read this in part hoping that it would clear up some of the bizarre choices in the Nanny McPhee film adaptation. It did not.

Yet I actually enjoyed the first tale. Yes, it lacked the Hollywood morals and character depth, but it was a light, fun read fit to make children laugh.

It was only as I entered the second and third installments that I began to find it dull and formulaic, with Nurse Matilda serving as little more than a one trick pony.

[Corinne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read the Nurse Matilda books one morning because I was curious how they related to the movie Nanny McPhee. I expected something similar to Mary Poppins or the American Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. The first book does have at least a little overarching plot--Nurse Matilda comes to work for them, grows gradually less ugly as the children learn to change their behavior bit by bit, and then has to leave when they grow to love her. The children (of which there are an unknown number) have very inventive ways of being naughty that would probably make children today laugh, but many of which are so over the top as to be obnoxious. Every adult is idiotic and can easily be made to believe that a horse wearing a pink hat is one of the little girls, or that children eating jam are really cannibals, etc. There is quite a lot of language that will be lost on today's children (on today's adults, even), a few politcally incorrect references to "Red Indians", and the second two books mostly involve the children forgetting the lessons they learned, pulling very similar schenanigans, and Nurse Matilda changing from pretty to ugly seemingly every fifteen minutes.

Young children would probably still enjoy many of these silly stories as a read-aloud, but as an adult they quickly grow tiresome and repetitive. A good plot idea, execution could have been better.

[Kaitlyn Lew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is basically about 7 kids who grew up with no mother. Their mother died when they were all young. Since their father is always working, the kids have been growing up with several different nannies that they all somehow scare away. They have scared away about 18 different nannies already. But one magical nanny knocks on their door, and her mission is to teach the 7 children how to listen, respect others, and everything kids should do. The magical nanny, Nanny McPhee, uses her magical cane that she stomps on the floor to make the kids listen. This book is very enjoyable to people of all ages. Its a children's comedy. When Nanny McPhee finishes her job, she must go and help the next family. "There is something you should understand about the way I work. When you need me but do not want me, then I must stay. When you want me but no longer need me, then I have to go. It's rather sad, really, but there it is." From my opinion this is a really inspirational quote throughout the book because the children never appreciated anything before Nanny McPhee came along. They hated her. Now, they don't want her to leave. This shows how the children change throughout the book. I recommend this book to really anybody who is looking forward to go into a magical book.

[Della Tingle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one book contains three different Nurse Matilda stories by Christianna Brand: Nurse Matilda, Nurse Matilda Goes to Town, and Nurse Matilda Goes to Hospital. I thoroughly enjoyed the first story, Nurse Matilda. I more and more tired of the stories by the 2nd and then 3rd. In fact, it was a CHORE to finish the third story and thereby this entire book. The children are naughty, and they stay naughty! Frankly, I got tired of the children!

This copy is a library book from my local library, and someone had dog-eared page 371. I can’t help but wonder if that person finished the book or actually gave up on page 371, never to read any more! I felt that way…I had to PUSH myself to just finish! BUT…the first story of Nurse Matilda is definitely worth the read, especially if you like the Nanny McPhee movies. Both screenplays are by Emma Thompson, and she did a fantastic job!!!!!!! (The movies are better!)

Am I glad I read? YES!

Will I read again? NO!

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is also a movie. On the front cover it says that you should read the book first. I was surprised that the movie was based on this book. It was very different from the book. The movie is very enjoyable and is very intriguing but I don't think that the book had that much purpose. There was no point to it, it merely stated what was happening. It was not a book that I could not put down. I would not recommend this book.

[Tabitha · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of those rare cases where the movie is actually better than the book!
Well, to be fair, the first book in this edition of 3 is actually pretty charming. But the second two get progressively duller and more repetitive until I finally couldn't finish the last one.
So yeah, do yourself a favor and enjoy the gorgeous/witty/heartwarming movie and skip this, or at least the second two in this series.

[Aina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute book good for children.😍

[Greenglasses · Rating 3 out of 5]

The adventures of nanny mcphee

very descriptive.
slightly repettitive.

thats all.

[Debby · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a fun read, despite the impossibility of it all. The nanny was just as scary and charming over time as any parent would wish her to be.
I really enjoyed Emma Thompson's alterations, bringing more of a reason for the kids to be so far out of hand. The book has two parents, (perhaps too much like Mary Poppins?) and the movie has a widowed father. The repeat of the naughty pranks the kids play as a list, to me, seemed tedious but it might bring giggles to kids by the outrageousness of it all. I can see why it led to a fun-filled movie, but each of the tales within the book seemed more of the same.

[Marsha · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Brown children are possibly the worst rapscallions you’ll ever meet outside of a jail cell; these tales of their antics wear a little thin after the first few chapters. You long for them to get a good hard spanking. What they get instead is Nurse Matilda, a magical woman who is able to hoist them with their own petards with just one rap of her big, black stick.

No, she doesn’t hit them although you find yourself wishing for it. The Brown children never seem to learn to behave; they just bide their time until she’s out of sight and earshot. Given two minutes alone and they’re playing practical jokes that make Bart Simpson look like Little Lord Fauntleroy.

Also, the ending of each novel was tedious and repetitive, basically a repeat dream sequence that only altered in details and not in the actual premise. The illustrations aren’t particularly noteworthy either, featuring crude line drawings more suitable to uncritical pre-teens. Appropriate, since they would seem to be the main readers for this type of book.

What really sank this collection for me was the sheer proliferation and uniformity of the Brown children. While they are given different names, we are never given any distinctive features about them. We’re not told what they look like, how differently they behave or given any unique characteristics about any of them. There are only the Big Ones, the Middling Ones, the Little Ones, the Littlest Ones and the Baby. You’d think a Baby would have a name of its own but no such luck.

This volume contains stills from the recent movie “Nanny McPhee” but that is its sole redeeming aspect. As children classics go, this volume leaves a great deal to be desired. No wonder it took a movie adaptation to revive these three novels for the 21st century.

[Emily Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mom loved Nurse Matilda when she was little, and technically the copy I read was one that she found years ago once they started printing it again and she recognized it as her much beloved book. It goes along well with my current fascination with the UK, and my overall love of old fashioned children's stories.
Nurse Matilda is a book about a nanny who comes to look after extremely naughty children (in this case, the Brown children), and teach them how to behave, through the use of her magic black stick. In the first book, it mostly just makes the children repeat whatever they're doing until they just cannot stand it anymore, and they ask to "please stop," in the latter two books, the stick gives them more a dose of their own medicine, and ends when they realize that the baby has gone missing and start to care about someone other than themselves.
It was a bit of an odd shift between the first book and the second two, and I think I would have liked the first as a stand alone, without having read the sequels at all. Still, it was a pleasant read all the way through. Getting used to words like 'bath-chair' instead of wheelchair was a little odd though.

[MsAprilVincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nurse Matilda disciplines bad kids. That's what this book is about. What makes it interesting is HOW she does it.

The kids in these books aren't evil, but they're pretty badly-behaved. Most of their hijinx are actually fairly harmless; it's just that they're causing trouble with such consistency and in such great quantity that it's hard for other people to handle.

Enter Nurse Matilda, the ugliest woman alive, whose punishments generally force the children to become the victims of their own pranks. When they've learned their lesson, the punishment ends, and Nurse Matilda gets a little prettier.

This edition has three books in one, and they're pretty similar the Mary Poppins and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series. (I do like stories about unruly children who get straightened out by the golden-hearted governess.)

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because I loved the movie "Nanny McPhee" with Emma Thompson. I love the first story in this collection because it was fresh and original. The second story, however, was exactly the same as the first! The third story was a little bit better but followed still closely. So I would recommend just reading the first story. It was fun and I loved all the lessons the children had to learn and wished mine would learn them as well!

[Michaela · Rating 2 out of 5]

The children's repeating their bad behavior learning the same lessons over and over...for three books in the three-in-one collection. The parents were....I just wanted to smack some sense of responsibility and intelligence into both of the parents. I loved the movie. The books were just....barely 2 stars as far as I am concerned.

[Kaethe · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent Edwardian Mary Poppins-like stories. Like many other children's books of the era, the stories don't form a solid narrative arc. For that see the adaptation into Nanny McPhee. Unlike Mary Poppins, it doesn't seem to be suffering from distressingly racist assumptions.

[Su · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is delightful and charming, and as someone who saw the movie first, I was not disappointed. The later stories get progressively sillier and a bit repetitive, though, so it's probably great as a read-aloud or a chapter book for young readers, but for an adult who still happens to enjoy reading children's stories it's probably a stretch to keep reading. Definitely read the first book, but Goes to Town and Goes to Hospital are more of the same.

Three stars because I stick to the Goodreads star rating descriptions like glue--I liked it.

[Christine Sinclair · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a three-volume set of the Nurse Matilda stories; she became Nanny McPhee on the big screen. Emma Thompson had an amazing make-over to play this part, and she wrote some additional stories as well (SO talented!). Witty and imaginative, with a very British spin, but the volumes would be better read individually, as there is a bit of repetition in them. Still, very entertaining, along the lines of Mrs. Piggle Wiggle in the U.S.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think one of these books would have been more than enough. Basically, she tells the same story three times. It's a fun story and silly to read the first time - though reading it aloud to a modern child will require a bit of explaining much of the humor.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trinity loved them I drudged through them. The "dream" chapters that summarized each book at the end were particularly painful. The children where very naughty and much of the actions were hard to explain to Trinity due to how dated it is.

[Lyna · Rating 3 out of 5]

أعتقد أن الفيلم كان أفضل بكثير مما قرأت سواء من حيث القصة أو المتعة أو حتى الكوميديا و التشويق،أما الكتاب فكان مكررا و مملا قليلا و صعب أن يتمسك به الطفل،"ناني ماكفي " من أفضل ماشاهدته في صغري لهذا وضعت 3 نجمات وفقط.

[Lucy Takeda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read finished all of my library book stack, so I picked this up. It isn’t bad, but I found it rather repetitive. The fact the kids learn to fear Nurse Matilda, but don’t seem to learn moral lessons bothers me. I got really tired of children running, and the frigging Baby’s drooping diaper.

[Literary Chanteuse · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Karinya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awsome

[Matthew Hussey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book but with some tricky parts to read. Some sections became repetitive after all 3 books.

[April Suter · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are times when the story just drags and goes on and on. The 1st story is much better than the next two.

[Joan Horkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very repetitive. It is, after all, a children's book.

[Trish · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was so silly, so out of date - can’t relate - and tiresome.

[Cassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully silly. Reminded me of Jack Lasenby's Aunt Effie series.

[Miha Ureche · Rating 5 out of 5]

E uimitoare!