Nurse Matilda

I confess that there is only one reason I like this collection of three books. It is out of the dark pleasure of fantasizing that my large family could raise mischief similar to what is mentioned in this book. The plot is simple - Supernatural meets super nanny. Step 1 - Find house full of delightfully naughty children. (It is never mentioned just how many children are in the Brown family.) Step 2 - All other house staffs have been chased away by said mischief. Step 3 - Intervention by stern, but fair, authority figure. (The ugly nurse Matilda, whom becomes more beautiful as the children behave. Her one rule: When the children need me, but don't want me, I stay. When the children want me, but no longer need me, I leave.) Step 4 - Children misbehaving are forced to continue in their actions until it becomes no longer "fun". Step 5 - Children shape up, Matilda leaves. And the curious 6th component... Christiana Brand has the Brown children relive their wickedness in a collective nightmare where they are the victims of the pranks they pulled.

My favorite collection is the third in the series - Nurse Matilda goes the the hospital. It begins with the Brown children going to church. Their first show of force is to sing whatever hymn they want at the top of their lungs. All the other members must either join in the song or be drowned out. At the end of the service, which was on loving your neighbor, the Brown children delightedly put the minister to the test of practicing what he preached. As he shakes the hands of his congregation, the children rush around to the back entrance to emerge once again shaking the Minister's hand repeatedly. Their naughtiness is overdrawn, over-the-top, and upon hapless and clueless victims. Nurse Matilda provides their beloved nemesis who reforms them by judo flipping the force of their mischief upon their own heads. Having to be naughty defeats the purpose of snubbing rules.

In summation, it is a trilogy of outrageous misbehavior and the magic of childhood. Just don't ask me to visit them in reality, being an observer is much preferable to being a potential mark for the resourceful Brown children...