Mary Poppins by Dr. P.L. Travers

I recently picked up a copy of the original Mary Poppins by Dr. P.L Travers (Illustrations by Mary Shepard) at Book Thing in Baltimore, MD.  It's a favorite movie of my sister's, has been since she was little, and I figured I would check out the book that inspired it.  So far, the movie is pretty faithful to the original story.  However, in addition to Jane and Michael there are a set of twins that never made it into the film.  (They are babies in a pram for most of the book, so I understand why they were left out entirely.)  Also, as of yet, they do not mention the Mom being a Suffragette, though Mary Poppins plays on Mrs. Banks' desire to be modern and fashionable.  The chalk adventure is only with Mary Poppins and Bert, a.k.a. the Matchman, on her day off.  Bert usually takes Mary out for Tea on her days off, but on this particular day he had not made enough money to do so. 

It is, however, at his suggestion that he and Mary pop into the chalk picture and they do end the day by riding Carousel Horses across the country side.  Mary Poppins still slides up the banister when the children first meet her.  She still has a very large Carpet Bag that's bigger on the inside.  And she still spoons out different flavored medicine from the same bottle, though the babies get plain Milk out of it.  Some of the lines in the movie are directly out of the dialogue in the book as well.

So far, I am only a few chapters in, but the style is very simple.  Each chapter is like its own little short story and would make for excellent bedtime reading with a little one.