So…while I was not super intrigued by P.L. Travers’s rendering of Mary Poppins, I did feel that I needed to “collect” the series. After reading Mary Poppins Comes Back, I don’t really feel that need anymore.
Mary Poppins has gone AWOL to where the wind changes, and naturally, the Banks family is in an uproar. Everybody is moody, and neither Mr. nor Mrs. Banks can seem to manage to parent their own children. Par for the course. So, when Michael and Jane take the twins to the park and try to fly a kite, Mary Poppins appears at the other end of the string. Ecstatically, the children welcome her back. They must be masochists–Mary Poppins takes them on crazy adventures and then tells them they must be lying when they all get back. I would not put up with that kind of nonsense. I don’t remember ALL the crazy adventures, but Jane and Michael go up to the stars and Mary Poppins dances with the sun. P.L. Travers had one wild imagination. She promises to stay until the chain breaks on her locket, and when it inevitably does, the children discover that it contains a picture of them. Okay, that’s sweet. I’ll give Mary a pass on that.
Also: Mrs. Banks pops another child out that she will obviously not be caring for. Seriously, are there still people who believe that birth control is evil? It is not evil. The Banks children are just “lucky” their parents are rich enough to hire someone to parent for them. Wow, I guess I had Feelings about this book. I started this review thinking, “This book was weird” and apparently ended up going on a rant about birth control. No worries, friends. I will not be continuing the series.
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