1934: Mary Poppins

Book Name: Mary Poppins

Author: P.L. Travers

Genre: Children's

Year Published: 1934

Once again I'm kinda late actually writing this blog post as I kept intending to go see Saving Mr. Banks but unfortunately as the cinema costs money & requires free time I haven't got round to it... Also my friends wanted to watch Frozen instead ^^;

Anyway, the book was pretty good although most of the stories weren't the same as the ones in the Disney musical. This is because Mary Poppins is a series so the stories are drawn from multiple books. However, when I rewatched the film after I finished the book, I noticed things I hadn't before. For example, in the opening song with Bert, he sings short pieces about Mrs Corry and her tall daughters as well as Andrew the dog's owner - Miss Lark. These characters actually have full chapters in the book.

Although I haven't got around to watching Saving Mr. Banks, I did see a documentary about P.L. Travers prior to reading the book. Apparently Walt Disney had a really hard time convincing her to let him make a film of Mary Poppins as she was worried how well the stories would be conveyed on screen. It took him around 20 years to persuade her meaning the film didn't come out until 1964 and even then she still objected to some parts such as the songs.

Anyway, I think I might have enjoyed this book more if I wasn't expecting the same stories as the film which is a problem I usually try to avoid by reading things before watching them. I'm doing this with Game of Thrones at the moment and it's taking forever but I always find this way works better. Of course it was somewhat unavoidable in the case of Mary Poppins, given the fame and popularity of the Disney film compared with the books. Interestingly, even when I went to get this out at the library and asked for Mary Poppins, the librarian directed me to the DVDs and asked a lot of questions about whether I was a teacher and how old I was when I indicated I actually wanted the children's novel. However, this is a classic of children's literature and I'd recommend it to adults also as a light read in the same way that you might enjoy reading Harry Potter.

Other Books I Considered: Goodbye Mr. Chips - James Hilton; Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie

Books I Read Inbetween: The Last Continent - Terry Pratchett; Kat, Incorrigible - Stephanie Burgis