This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Mary Poppins in the Park Series: Mary Poppins #4 Author: Pamela Travers Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Middlegrade Fiction Pages: 272 Words: 49K
Exactly more of the same. The same plot points, the same beats, the same style. Once each story opened, I knew exactly where it was going. That’s just fine for a childrens story. But since this is the fourth Mary Poppins book I read, it was a bit tiresome for Adult Me.
I have no regrets whatsoever about reading this omnibus of Mary Poppins books, but I am glad I am done with these stories. I wouldn’t recommend them on their own but only to those of you who might have children or want to be reminded of what a child’s mind can handle.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – Click to Open
This fourth book contains six adventures of the Banks children with Mary Poppins during their outings in the park along Cherry Tree Lane. Chronologically the events in this book occurred during the second or third book (Mary Poppins Comes Back and Mary Poppins Opens the Door respectively). Among the adventures they experience are a tea party with the people who live under the dandelions, a visit to cats on a different planet, and a Halloween dance party with their shadows.
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
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).
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Mary Poppins Comes Back Series: Mary Poppins #2 Author: Pamela Travers Rating: 3 of 5 Stars Genre: Middlegrade Fiction Pages: 304 Words: 59K
A couple of teens in our church had done the play/musical Mary Poppins Jr and had to read the original book so they had the full story. I was talking to them and when they mentioned it, that was how I got the idea to read at least the first couple of books. I thoroughly enjoyed Mary Poppins and after their play was done, hunted them down and asked them what they thought of the book. They had a VERY different take on the original and one that I suspect was more about age and experience difference than actual literary evaluation difference. But their comments stayed in my head as I went into the next book and yeah, I see what they meant. I shall expound in a later paragraph.
When I did the Currently Reading & Quote post earlier this month, I said I was looking forward to Mr Banks’ old nanny, Miss Andrew, striking sparks with Mary Poppins. Well, there was a confrontation but there weren’t many sparks, mainly because Mary Poppins so overpowered Miss Andrew that it would have been like asking a log of wood to strike sparks from an axe. Mary Poppins eventually got so fed up with Miss Andrew, that when she found out Miss Andrew kept a singing lark prisoner in a cage, she put Miss Andrew in the cage and had the lark fly all over the sky with it, thus scaring the stuffing out of Miss Andrew.
In this book, it is Jane, the eldest, who has a “bad” day and is naughty, naughty, naughty (in the previous book it was Michael). She ends up inside a magic vase, trapped by an evil “grandfather” who wants new grandchildren and for them to never change. Mary Poppins rescues her but Janes’ takeaway is that it wasn’t really her who was being so naughty, but some other “Jane”. I have noticed this author doesn’t believe in the fallen nature of humanity. Everyone is basically good. Which is so much complete balderdash that you have to be deliberately ignoring the evidence in front of your eyes. Children ARE naughty and bad. They need to be corrected. They need to come to the realization that they are bad in and of themselves and that they will never be “perfect’ on their own. Until a person realizes that, they can never admit that they need Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Ok, so back to my reading. When I was talking with the teens from church, one of their complaints about Mary Poppins was how she gaslit the children and that really annoyed them, hence their dislike of the first book. I had to laugh, because it happens just as much this time, if not more. Jane and Michael will see something, like Mary Poppins coming down at the end of Michael’s kite (how she came back) and when they mention it to her, Mary Poppins acts outraged and like it couldn’t possibly have happened. Being children, they are not so sure of themselves, but the author always has them see some bit of evidence at the end of the chapter so they KNOW they did see what they thought they saw. I found it extremely amusing but I guess from a teenager’s view point I could understand why they wouldn’t like that. Getting older has brought me so many benefits that sometimes I forget and it takes talking to someone who hasn’t gotten to my place yet to remember just how blessed I am.
I also found out there are EIGHT Mary Poppins books. I just have the omnibus collecting the first four. Depending on how the next two go will determine if I try to track down the other four.
★★★☆☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – Click to Open
Nothing has been right since Mary Poppins left Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane. One day, when Mrs. Banks sends the children out to the park, Michael flies his kite up into the clouds. Everyone is surprised, when Michael reels his kite in, to find that Mary Poppins is at the end of the string. She takes charge of the children once again (though she’ll only stay “’til the chain of her locket breaks”). This time, Jane and Michael meet the fearsome Miss Andrew, experience an upside-down tea party, and visit a circus in the sky. In the chapter “The New One” a girl, Annabel, is born into the Banks family, and concludes the family of now five children: three daughters and two sons. As in Mary Poppins, Mary leaves at the end (via an enchanted merry-go-round, throwing her locket towards the children as she disappears), but this time with a “return ticket, just in case” she needs to return.
“When I was a little boy,” said Mr. Banks, “I loved going for walks. I used to walk with my Governess down to the second lamp-post and back every day. And I never grumbled.”
Michael stood still on his stair and looked doubtfully at Mr. Banks.
“Were you ever a little boy?” he said, very surprised.
Mr. Banks seemed quite hurt.
“Of course I was. A sweet little boy with long yellow curls, velvet breeches and button-up boots.”
“I can hardly believe it,” said Michael, hurrying down the stairs of his own accord and staring up at Mr. Banks.
He simply could not imagine his Father as a little boy. It seemed to him impossible that Mr. Banks had ever been anything but six feet high, middle-aged and rather bald.
“What was the name of your Governess?” asked Jane, running downstairs after Michael. “And was she nice?”
“She was called Miss Andrew and she was a Holy Terror!”
“Hush!” said Mrs. Banks, reproachfully.
“I mean—” Mr. Banks corrected himself, “she was—er—very strict. And always right. And she loved putting everybody else in the wrong and making them feel like a worm. That’s what Miss Andrew was like!”
~Chapter 2
Ha! I can remember as a young boy realizing one day that my Dad’s name wasn’t “Dad”. He had his own name, just like I had mine. It shocked me to be honest, and the world got a whole lot bigger in just those few seconds. Did you ever have some experience like that as a kid, when you just suddenly weren’t a child anymore in some minor regard and how big it was to you? Tell me about it if it did.
I included the rest of the scene because every description that Mr Banks applies to his old governess, Miss Andrews, pretty much applies to Mary Poppins as well. I’m just waiting for them to meet and for the sparks to fly!
This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Mary Poppins Series: Mary Poppins #1 Author: Pamela Travers Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars Genre: Middlegrade Fiction Pages: 159 Words: 43K
An absolutely delightful book. Absolutely delightful! I had seen the Disney movie/musical way back when and enjoyed it as a child but even then I felt that Julie Andrews was simply too saccharine sweet and thus had no desire to ever explore the books, as I figured they would be more of the same, if not even sweeter. But as the years have gone by and I have learned just what “Disneyfied” means, I wondered if perhaps the books weren’t quite what the movie portrayed. Then some people I know were doing an amateur play production and I decided that now was the time to check things out.
I am very glad I did. Mary Poppins was not the saccharine character in the movie. She was extremely competent and yet, she was sharp as glass and boy, could she cut. She was vain, always looking at herself in mirrors or windows. She was sulky, refusing to talk to the children if they had done something she didn’t like. She was vindictive, giving the children “exactly” what they wanted when she didn’t want to. It was wonderful seeing an adult treat the kids like kids instead of acting like they were helpless snowflakes who would melt at one hot word.
Each chapter was one adventure. It was perfectly paced and when the story was done, it was done. I like that kind of finality. Also, Mary Poppins literally blew in on the wind and then the book ends with her blowing away. Perfect book ends.
It was just plain invigorating to read this and I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.
★★★✬☆
From Wikipedia
Synopsis – Click to Open
The first book introduces the Banks family from Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane, London,[a] consisting of Mr and Mrs Banks, their children Jane and Michael, and baby twins John and Barbara. When the children’s nanny, Katie Nanna, storms out in a huff, Mary Poppins arrives at their home, complete with her travelling carpet bag, blown in by a very strong east wind. She accepts the job (agreeing to stay “till the wind changes”), and the children soon learn that their nanny, though stern, vain and usually cross, has a magical touch that makes her wonderful. Among the things Jane and Michael experience are a tea party on a ceiling with Mr Wigg, a trip around the world with a compass, the purchase of gingerbread stars from the extremely old Mrs Corry, a meeting with the Bird Woman, a birthday party at the zoo among the animals, and a Christmas shopping trip with a star named Maia from the Pleiades cluster in the constellation Taurus. In the end, in what is perhaps the most iconic image associated with Mary Poppins, she opens her umbrella and the west wind carries her away. She leaves behind a note letting the children know that they will meet her again someday.
