Reviews

Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

sams84's review against another edition

4.0

This is just as delightful and enjoyable as the movie that it spawned, possibly even more so as Mary Poppins is far more 'herself' than the movie and takes the four (not two) children on many more adventures as well as those we're fully familiar with. The writing is delightful being both concise and whimsical which basically sums Poppins up perfectly.

botzenhart's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

marilupignetta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

holly_153's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

3.5

allymcevoy's review against another edition

3.0

I started this as a way to just read an easy, light story for once. And I was pleasantly surprised. I grew up knowing the story, but I never really watched Mary Poppins (1964), so the fact I could read this without anything to compare it to made it much more enjoyable. Admittedly I grew bored a lot, but overall the concepts kept me hooked, because I’m a sucker for magic.

mcbibliotecaria's review against another edition

2.0

Mary Poppins is the nanny from hell. If Disney actually stuck to the actual story, I might have actually liked it. Its so damn cute that I cannot stand to watch it for more than 10 minutes at a time. Mary Poppins pops out of nowhere to psychologically manipulate the Banks children, who already have crappy absent parents. The magic she brings is unconnected to her awful vain attitude. She cares about what she looks like, spends hours checking herself out in shop windows, and then retorts to the children with such mean things which I'm guessing is supposed to teach them a lesson? Or scar them for life. Its a magical book that is really out there so I can kinda understand what kids like about it. She's just such a meanie though.

aimeee_reads's review against another edition

4.0

This was so fun :) I've always loved the movie and the book was equally as good!

emily_gaynier's review against another edition

3.0

I love the Mary Poppins movie so much and when I learned that it was originally a book, I knew I had to read it!

I have to say I didn't like this book nearly as much as I thought I would. I knew that there were several things that never made it to the movie (like the twins), but I found Mary to be much more snappish and mean. At several moments she is actually very b*tchy. The only time I found her actually pleasant was when she and Bert went into his painting. Bert was the only thing that made Mary Poppins nice and he wasn't around after that scene, which made me sad because he is my favorite character from the movie.

This is definitely a case of should've read the book first. I probably would've enjoyed it much more if I didn't have any expectations from the movie.

chancereadsnow's review against another edition

funny lighthearted fast-paced

3.0

sassafrass_34's review against another edition

3.0

Mary Poppins has always been my favorite Disney movie so I decided to read the book. I was disappointed that the same magical feeling didn’t surround me with the book. Mary is mean and condescending to the children making it hard for me to love the character.