Book 413

Mary Poppins Comes Back, by P.L. Travers, illustrated by Mary Shepard, 1935.

Again, I loved the seemingly random short stories that are all connected by Mary Poppins.  So many were absolutely delightful, but my favorite was one about the King of the Castle.  It reminded me so much of the jester in Many Moons.

I don't have a problem with the non-Disneyfied Mary Poppins.  Travers was writing in a different era and in a different culture from what Disney portrays.  I also found it interesting that Travers was rather young when the first two Mary Poppins books were published -- 28 and 29.  She might have been writing in a way that recalled how she was treated as a child, and not how she would relate to a child.

The illustrations, again, are absolutely and delightfully perfect.