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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
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).
