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pagesofpins's review against another edition
1.0
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.
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.
saralynnburnett's review against another edition
3.0
I love love love children's books, but these stories got too repetitive at times.
ms_aprilvincent's review against another edition
3.0
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.)
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.)
kmdahlgran's review against another edition
3.0
I thought the stories were a bit repetitive, but my girls loved them. They looked forward to seeing what kind of mischief the children were going to get into.
ladylondonderry's review against another edition
5.0
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.
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.
egajdosik's review against another edition
4.0
Loved the first book, but the others were the same story rewritten twice over.
treereader's review
4.0
Wonderfully silly. Reminded me of [a:Jack Lasenby|227945|Jack Lasenby|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1331281984p2/227945.jpg]'s Aunt Effie series.
saralynnburnett's review
3.0
I love love love children's books, but these stories got too repetitive at times.