A review by minty
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

2.0

I've always watched the movie--a beloved favorite--and wondered how the book might present the characters differently. I've always been confused by the way Mary Poppins, in the movie, seems to open the kids' minds to imaginative play but then flatly, and rudely, denies it all after. ("A respectable person like me in a horserace? How dare you suggest such a thing.") I listened to the book as an audiobook, and confess I was doing enough other things while listening that I didn't listen closely, but it didn't seem to be too much more enlightening on that point. In fact, Mary Poppins came across as even more vain, and the adventures were still downplayed. It was more obviously a metaphor for real life in the book (the animals in the zoo, for instance, were openly described as stand-ins for real people), but the overall effect seemed much more like Alice in Wonderland, in a way that I don't get from the Disney movie. Odd odd book.