Christianna Brand did such a good job of evoking the Victorian nursery presided over by a nanny, that I thought the Nurse Matilda stories were contemporary with E. Nesbit or Mrs. Molesworth. I was surprised to learn that the first Nurse Matilda book was published in 1964. That would explain why the Ocean Park library didn't have them when I was little; the main Santa Monica library may have got freshly published books in but the little branch libraries had slightly older books on the shelf. To be fair, they did have one book published in 1963 before we moved away in 1965.

Nurse Matilda invites comparisons with Mary Poppins because of the magic, but the theme of letting-the-children-do-their-own-thing until they hate it is more similar to Mrs Piggle-Wiggle (series published 1947-1957).

Like Mrs Piggle-Wiggle, the Nurse Matilda books tend to be a bit repetitive in their formula. This didn't bother me at all as a 7 year old reading about Mrs. P-W and I'm sure would not have bothered me had I read Nurse M when I was 8, but it is a bit much for an adult. The hallucinatory dream sequences with which the books end were also a bit much for me as an adult and I'm not at all sure how they would strike a child. Each of the first two books ends with a chapter recounting one of these fever dreams. Two chapters of it at the end of the third book is truly excessive.

Because of the repetitive story line (children are naughty; Matilda is summoned; stick is thumped; children must continue naughtiness until they repent, Matilda leaves), it's probably a mistake to buy the entire series in one volume ("Nanny McPhee") if you are like me and don't have the discipline not to read it all at one sitting. Good children's book for children nonetheless. For families or schools, reading aloud at the rate of a chapter a day would be enjoyable (but not the third book, because the last TWO chapters!).

I found an interesting review that I would like to link for my own reference: https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/nurse-matilda/ ( )

It was tough. Too many baby words. Words that were not words and my 7 year old had to read them and explain it to me! Overall... she liked it so I guess it was a good book! ( )

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. ( )

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! ( )

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. ( )