Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins, #1) (Voyager/HBJ Book) (Coleccion Juventud)

by Dr P L Travers

[clairelm]

I knew when I started this that it would be different to the Disney film. I wasn't expecting the extent of that difference though.
In the film, everybody's favourite nanny is firm but fair, in the book she is completely different. The children, however (although more of them) are as lovely as they are in the film.
Mary Poppins is strict, cold and uncaring. She's also incredibly vain. Every time they go somewhere, she's looking in shop windows admiring herself. The children's curiosity is met with snappy remarks and the kind of behaviour that would make any child curl up and lose interest in the world around them. She takes them on adventures and accuses them of lying when they mention them. Even a compliment from Jane or Michael is taken as an affront to her.
I have no idea why the children love her so much (aside from the fun adventures) but I couldn't bring myself to like her, let alone love her like I do the Julie Andrews version.