A stern, magical nanny arrives on the east wind to look after the Banks children in London
The nanny who arrived on the wind
One windy day, a tall, stern young woman with a carpetbag and a parrot-headed umbrella blows up to Number Seventeen, Cherry Tree Lane, to become nanny to Jane, Michael and the baby twins of the Banks family. She is vain, sharp-tongued and never explains herself, but with Mary Poppins, ordinary days turn into extraordinary adventures.
Who will enjoy it
Children aged about seven to eleven and adults who enjoy whimsical classic fantasy and read-aloud stories.
What you will get
A delightful, whimsical classic full of magic and surprises, starring a sharp, vain and utterly unforgettable nanny who turns ordinary days into adventures.
Mary Poppins Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Children’s Books · Nanny · Magic · London
Length
208 pages · ≈ 6 h
More about this book
The book is a series of mostly separate adventures. Mary Poppins slides up the banister, her carpetbag holds far more than seems possible, and her medicine tastes different to each child. She takes Jane and Michael to tea with her uncle, Mr. Wigg, who fills with laughter and floats up to the ceiling, and they all join him there. On her day out, she and her friend Bert, a match-man and pavement artist, step into one of his chalk pictures and have tea in the countryside.
Other chapters include a visit to the strange Mrs. Corry, who sells gingerbread with paper stars and later pastes those stars into the night sky; the twins' conversation with a sunbeam and a starling; and a magical birthday party at the zoo at night, where the animals visit the humans in cages. Mary Poppins is not the sweet nanny of the famous film: she is proud and prickly, yet the children adore her. When the wind changes, she opens her umbrella and leaves. Mary Shepard's original drawings add great charm.
Whimsical, witty and magical, the first of a series. About 208 pages in the HMH paperback.
Winnie-the-Pooh
Peter Pan
The Wind in the Willows
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Half Magic
Peter and the Starcatchers
Pippi Longstocking
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Strega Nona
Mr. Popper's Penguins
The Day the Crayons Quit
The Gruffalo