Nanny Mcphee: The Collected Tales Of Nurse Matilda

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This book is so much more than a movie tie-in designed to squeeze as much money as possible out of a children’s movie.

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.Set in Victorian England in the 1860s, the film stars Emma Thompson as Nanny McPhee, along with Colin Firth and Angela Lansbury.

I started out with the first book in this (gratefully short) series by Christianna Brand, Nurse Matilda (published 1964. Sometimes their naughtiness is scattershot and random, sometimes it is fiendishly clever and well-coordinated (particularly when they decide to ruin a grown-up party). wittily written, this gives a delightful insight into the craft of film-making and the accidents (Rhys Ifans breaking a foot playing football) that can hold things up, and will provide lots of trivia-spotting for children who watch it on the big screen . The movie is very enjoyable and is very intriguing but I don't think that the book had that much purpose.Brown was very sweet but she really was rather foolish about her dear, darling children, and never could believe that they could really be naughty. The books were later adapted for the films Nanny McPhee (2005) and Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010). These three books are now available in a single-volume edition titled Nanny McPhee, in honor of the 2006 motion picture that is more or less based on them.

I initially found the split between the story and diary a little bit intrusive, so you'd just get into one thing when you'd be back switching to another, but by the end I'd got the hang of it. And though each book begins and ends in a similar way, the middle parts are surprisingly inventive…and very, very naughty. I can’t help but wonder if that person finished the book or actually gave up on page 371, never to read any more! The Nurse Matilda stories were originally made up and told to Christianna Brand and her cousin, Edward Ardizzone by their grandparent.Based on popular films, TV series and classic children’s literature, Popcorn ELT Primary Readers are targeted at children in the early stages of learning English.