Mary Poppins

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Summary: Mary Poppins
Review: October 2, 2003

P.L. Travers
W.W. Norton & Co.

Have you ever seen a stranger fly up a staircase, talk to animals, or put a star in the sky? Well, Marry Poppins can! This is one of the best fantasy books I've ever read and it's way better than the movie. Marry Poppins is about a family who live in a house made to look like a ship. When the family needs a nannie to take care of the children, Marry comes to fill the position. I really liked it when Jane, the oldest child, had a dream about going to the zoo with her bother Michael at night and how every thing there was upside down. People where inside the cages and the animals were watching and running around. It seemed to be Marry Poppins birthday and some lord snake was giving her a present, his shedded skin. The weird part about it is that Michael had the same dream and Marry the next morning was wearing a new snake skin belt. To find out more read the book. I did and I really liked it!

Marry is a strange and mysterious woman who comes and goes when the wind changes. The characters had lots of attitude. Michael and Jane were the kids and John and Barbara were the twin babies. There was
the street painter who can jump into his own paintings. Also, there are the Mom and Dad who don't have a clue that Marry is a magical woman.

This was an awesome and creative book. It had lots of adventure and excitement. Like when Marry takes her compass, says a direction, and instantly she's there! I really liked it because I like fantasy books. Marry Poppins was definitely a page turner with great suspense because Marry Poppins can only stay a little while, but why?

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Summary: AWESOME BOOK!!!!!!
Review: one of the the very few books that i could read over and over. it is not like the movie at all.

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Summary: Mary Poppins or Zen master?
Review: P.L. Travers was a friend of the poet AE, and is versed in Eastern thought, and I think this really comes through in the Mary Poppins books. They are not cute, although Disney has done its best to reduce them to that. The books are, in a very understated English way, about the nature of reality and our perception of it. These stories can be read on many different levels, which is part of their enduring charm and mystery. Yes, Jane and Michael and the twins are sweet. Yes, Mary is proper and then surprising by rapid turn. Yes, the nursery has the serene and comforting glow of the evening fire about it. But behind the scenes, the dance of the universe unfolds.

I kid you not; read some Zen philosophy and some Hindu theology and you'll see what I'm going on about.

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Summary: Harry Potter can't dim Mary Poppins' wonderful British magic
Review: P.L. Travers' original deptiction of Mary Poppins is NOT anything like Julie Andrews' cheerful, smiling character in the classic Disney movie. Instead, this nanny is very proper, stern and strict, a model of British efficiency, complete with a stiff upper lip. Only on rare occasions does her steely exterior give way and we get a glimpse of her heart of gold.

Yet, this gruffed up version of magical, mysterious Mary Poppins is practically perfect in every way. You won't need a spoonful of sugar to get kids to read this classic. Harry Potter can't compete with Mary's timeless appeal or her supercalifragilisticexpialadocious (did I spell it right?) magic powers; she's every bit as wonderous as you remember from years ago. Mary Poppins flies in on her parrot-head umbrella, straight into your heart.

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Summary: My childhood favorite
Review: Some forgotten but wise relative gave me the complete set of Mary Poppins books when I was a child, and I must have read them all a dozen times. Like the Pooh stories, they are so much better in the original than in the Disneyfied versions that it's a shame most kids will grow up only knowing the latter. Delightful, mysterious, exciting, and just shivery enough in parts to be utterly irresistable to the ten-year-old mind.

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Summary: Wonderful Book!
Review: Some people (who shall remain nameless), have a little too much time on their hands, reading bad and dangerous things into what is a delightful classic children's story. I first read this story when I was about 7 years old and loved it (and all the others in the series). Mary Poppins is someone who can transport children from the humdrum everyday world into a world of excitement,magic, and fun. Of course it is not like the movie, but let us remember what came first. P L Travers story is a must-read for all ages and a book that I highly recommend to everyone.

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Summary: The Sweet-Sour nanny at Cherry Tree Lane
Review: The brilliance of P. L. Traver's Poppins books is that the character of Mary Poppins is a study in contrast. Like an old-fashioned nanny, on the surface she is severe, critical and exacting. After all, she is entrusted with the serious job of raising British children. Underneath the self-satisfied, and even annoyingly "practically perfect" exterior is a magical soul, who befriends an odd lot of misfits and manages to charm everyone, including some lonely and neglected middle-class British kids of the very early 20th Century. And who can explain jumping into chalk pictures, laughter that sends you floating and many other odd occurrences that Mary takes as matter-of-fact.

The value of reading the Poppins series is that the books don't match the fun but more saccharine movie. The subtleties of a main character who is both lovable and cranky all at the same time make for fun family discussions and learning how to love people for their individual quirks, despite their more annoying characteristics. Every child should have the opportunity to enjoy this quirky, unique classic.

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Summary: Charming but demanding
Review: The Mary Poppins of the sticky-sweet Disney film and the Mary Poppins of the Travers novel are two entirely different characters, and the book presents us with a terse, demanding, and sharp-spoken nanny whose advetures satirize British sensibilities of the early 20th Century. In earlier decades, this would have made the book as much fun for adults as for children, but the passage of time has not been entirely kind to the novel: adults with little background in earlier British culture may easily miss the sharp wit and children raised on the tooth-rotting Disney film will probably be disappointed by the book's depiction of Mary herself. Parents who are willing to make the extra effort, however, will find it an extremely good opportunity for conversation with their children, for the various stories it contains (it is written in a very episodic way) will require plenty of commentary and explanation.

A surprising number of reviews accuse the novel of having paganistic, even satanic overtones. I myself consider this a matter of people finding what they look for rather than actually arising from anything in the novel itself.

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Summary: Emotionally evocative, delightful, and mystical story.
Review: This book is just wonderful, and I find it difficult to imagine any child who loves reading not liking it. It has a sense of mystery, even sanctuary about childhood. In the end, I read it as a faery story, although I'm sure that there are other paths just as rewarding. In any case, it's got elements of the fantastic, just a little hint of romance, a drop of melencholy, and enough humour and imagination to keep both younger and older readers entertained and smiling. In its own way it made my soul feel a little happier on the day I read it, and it's for that more than anything that I recommend it.

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Summary: Long Book
Review: This book is long because there are 208 pages.I still like this even when it is long.My parents bought me this book for my 11th birthday,on 10/1/98 this book was from Mom and Dad and Annika,Juan gave me She's Having A Baby I'm having A Breakdown two books.