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Title: Mary Poppins Opens the Door
Series: Mary Poppins #3
Author: Pamela Travers
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Middlegrade Fiction
Pages: 256
Words: 55K
Same old, same old. Mary Poppins comes back, has adventures with the Banks family and then leaves, only for good this time around.
It is very formulaic, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the age group this is aimed at. Mary Poppins takes the children to meet an eccentric family member of hers. Mary Poppins takes the children out and they have an adventure. The children go to a dream party of sorts where they find out Mary Poppins is the guest of honor. Thankfully this time around none of the children felt naughty and acted out, thus bringing the wrath of Mary Poppins down on their heads.
It really was the same as the previous two books, so if you liked those, you’ll like this and conversely, if you didn’t like the previous books, you won’t like this either. It’s also a natural ending place if you are on the fence and don’t want to continue reading any more in the series. I’ve got an omnibus of the first four stories, so I’ve got one more and I have enjoyed my time enough that I think I’ll go ahead and read it. But I won’t be seeking out the next four books.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – Click to Open
On Guy Fawkes Night, Mary Poppins arrives in the wake of the last fireworks display by the Banks family. The Banks children, Michael, Jane, the twins, and Annabel plead with her to stay. She reluctantly agrees to do so “till the door opens.” When an anxious Jane points out that the nursery door is always opening, she clarifies “the other door.”
Mrs. Banks has Mary and the children find a piano tuner, who happens to be Mary’s cousin, Mr. Twigley. When Mary and the children visit, Mr. Twigley tries to unburden himself from seven wishes given to him when he was born. Besides pianos, Mr. Twigley also specialises in songbirds such as nightingales, one of which he releases when he’s finished. He also provides music boxes for Mary and the Banks children to dance to. When they return home later, the drawing room piano is playing perfectly, and when the Banks children ask Mary what happened, she sharply rebukes them.
Other adventures in the book include Mary telling the story of a king (implied to be Old King Cole) who was outsmarted by a cat (known as “The Cat That Looked at a King”), the park statue of Neleus that comes to life for a time during one of their outings, their visit to confectioner Miss Calico and her flying peppermint sticks, an undersea (High-Tide) party where Mary Poppins is the guest of honour, and a party between fairy tale rivals in the Crack between the Old Year and the New. When the children ask why Mary Poppins, a real person, is there, they are told that she can be considered as a fairy tale that has come true. The next morning, Jane and Michael find definite proof of the last night’s adventure, and this time she does not deny it, simply telling them that they too may end up living happily ever after.
Finally, after Mary and the children have a non-magical (but nonetheless wondrous) afternoon playing on the swings at the Park, the citizens of the town as well as many other characters from the previous two books turn out in front of the house to have a farewell party. Before going inside, Mary urges the children to be good and remember everything she told them, and they realise that it is Mary, not the other characters, who is departing. They rush to the nursery to see her open and the nursery door’s reflection in the window. Mary Poppins then opens her parrot headed umbrella, and it soars up into the sky, taking her with it. The Banks Children are happy she kept her promise by staying till the “door” opened. Mrs Banks arrives afterwards, and sees the children alone. Mrs Brill tells her that Mary Poppins has left again, and she is distraught about what she is going to do without a nanny for the children. Mr Banks is distracted by the music playing outside, and encourages his wife to just forget about it and dance with him.
When he has finished dancing with his wife, he sees what he thinks is a shooting star, (though it is really Mary Poppins flying away on her umbrella) and they all wish upon it. The children wish to remember Mary Poppins for the rest of their lives, and they faintly make her out in the star. They wave and she waves back to them. The narrator remarks, “Mary Poppins herself had flown away, but the gifts she had brought would remain for always.”
They promise to never forget her, and she hears this and smiles and waves to them, before the darkness hides her, and they see her and her umbrella for the last time ever.
The Banks Family sigh that Mary Poppins has gone, but happily decide to sit by the fire together. (This presumably meaning that the parents have decided to spend more time with their children thanks to Mary’s lessons).
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