Sunday Salon: Reading Mary Poppins Comes Back (1935)

Mary Poppins Comes Back. P.L. Travers. 1935. Harcourt. 315 pages. [Source: Library]

It was one of those mornings when everything looks very neat and bright and shiny, as though the world had been tidied up overnight.

I definitely enjoyed rereading Mary Poppins Comes Back. There are a few chapters in this sequel that I just LOVE. (For example, "The Kite," "Miss Andrew's Lark," and "The New One.") I didn't love the stories--or the chapters--equally, however.

In this sequel, Mary Poppins returns to the Banks family. The four children have definitely missed her. So have Mr. and Mrs. Banks; they are so relieved that she's returned. In this sequel, a new baby joins the family. But Mary Poppins, of course, still manages to make everything run smoothly.

My favorite quotes:

"I want to know how you've been behaving since I went away," remarked Mary Poppins sternly. Then she took out the Thermometer and held it up to the light.
"Careless, thoughtless, and untidy," she read out. Jane stared.
"Humph!" said Mary Poppins, and thrust the Thermometer into Michael's mouth. He kept his lips tightly pressed upon it until she plucked it out and read.
"A very noisy mischievous, troublesome little boy."
"I'm not," he said angrily.
For answer she thrust the Thermometer under his nose and he spelt out the large red letters.
"A-V-E-R-Y-N-O-I-S---"
"You see?" said Mary Poppins looking at him triumphantly. She opened John's mouth and popped in the Thermometer.
"Peevish and Excitable." That was John's temperature.And when Barbara's was taken Mary Poppins read out the two words "Thoroughly spoilt."
"Humph!" she snorted. "It's about time I came back!"
Then she popped it quickly in her own mouth, left it there for a moment, and took it out. "A very excellent and worthy person, thoroughly reliable in every particular." (22)

"She was called Miss Andrew and she was a Holy Terror!"
"Hush!" said Mrs. Banks, reproachfully.
"I mean--" Mr. Banks corrected himself, "she was--er--very strict. And always right. And she loved putting everybody else in the wrong and making them feel like a worm. That's what Miss Andrew was like!" (32)

"Well?" she said gruffly smiling a thin smile. "I don't suppose you know who I am?"
"Oh, yes we do!" said Michael. He spoke in his friendliest voice for he was very glad to meet Miss Andrew. "You're the Holy Terror!" (39)

"Doing nothing takes a great deal of time! All the time, in fact!" (156)

© 2013 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews