Book Review: Mary Poppins Comes Back by P.L. Travers
It has been some time since Mary Poppins left the Banks family to fend for themselves. This hasn’t gone at all well. Nothing seems to work out right without Mary Poppins to ensure the correct outcome. After a particularly difficult morning, Mrs. Banks sends the children to the park (fortunately right next door) to give herself a break. Michael flies a kite, and somehow when the string is reeled in, Mary Poppins is at the other end!
This 1935 sequel to the beloved children’s classic is more of the same. It reads more like a series of short stories that happen to have a narrative arc than a novel. Mary Poppins and the children interact, something quite extraordinary happens, and at the end of the chapter Mary Poppins pretends no such shenanigans took place.
Who Mary Poppins is, is quite clear; she is Mary Poppins. What she is, however, is a mystery. She was born at some point, and has human-looking but rather odd relatives. She’s quite vain (often admiring her own reflection), often snappish towards the children, and sometimes speaks in a very common way. But Mary Poppins brings about magical events by her mere presence, has been around a very long time, and the sun and stars bow before her.
A few chapters into the book, it does become clear why Mary Poppins has come back as there is a new addition to the Banks family. A baby named Annabel. (At no time is a pregnancy of Mrs. Banks referred to; only her upset mood in the first chapter even hints at it.) This is the chapter that speaks the most to Mary Poppins’ origins as we learn newborns can speak to nature and remember the time before they came to Earth. Soon, the pressures of life make them forget…but Mary Poppins never did.
Some highlights include the visit to Cousin Turvy on a day when everything goes opposite for him, the circus of the stars, and the balloon lady chapter. (This last has a surprise cameo by the writer and artist!)
There’s a bit of period cultural insensitivity in some of the children’s games.
Like many older children’s classics, bits of this book are much creepier than you may have remembered.
Recommended for people who liked the Disney movies and are ready for something a bit more tart.
