NURSE MATILDA

by Christianna Brand ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 30, 1964

Entirely Victorian in style, this was a family story reclaimed from oblivion by the well-known author of adult mysteries. ""Once upon a time there was a huge family of children; and they were terribly, terribly naughty."" The family was not just huge, it was apparently limitless. ""Francesca had filled the Tiny Baby's bottle with baby food and was feeding the dogs with it. Little Quentin had drawn flowers all up the walls and was watering them from the big brown nursery teapot. Antony was filling up the nursery inkwells with runny red jam..."" and so on and on and on. Since the agencies had run out of nursemaids, the only remaining possibility was Nurse Matilda, who appeared on the doorstep one day looking very strange and ugly with her nose like two potatoes and her one huge magnificent tooth. In a series of not so easy, but remarkably efficient, lessons the children are transformed to more reasonable behavior by their extraordinary nurse, who gets better looking as her charges progress. In the beginning, the catalogue of dreadful pranks by truly naughty children makes extremely funny reading. Unfortunately, toward the end, Nurse Matilda's lessons are wrought upon the children in overlong, overcomplicated ways and the story loses much of its continuity and charm. Nurse Matilda was obviously one of the unwritten, unpublished ancestors of Mary Poppins. The pictures of the children in an uproar are by Edward Ardizzone, Miss Brand's cousin.

Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1964

ISBN: 1582346704

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1964

Categories: CHILDREN'S