Mary Poppins series - author   children's fiction   children's  
Issue Details: First known date: 1934-1989... 1934-1989 Mary Poppins
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

Adaptations

form y separately published work icon Mary Poppins Returns (International) assertion David Magee , ( dir. Rob Marshall ) United States of America (USA) : Walt Disney Productions , 2018 14249548 2018 single work film/TV fantasy children's

In Depression-era London, a now-grown Jane and Michael Banks, along with Michael's three children, are visited by the enigmatic Mary Poppins following a personal loss. Through her unique magical skills, and with the aid of her friend Jack, she helps the family rediscover the joy and wonder missing in their lives.

Source: IMDb blurb

Includes

1
y separately published work icon Mary Poppins P. L. Travers , New York (City) : Reynal and Hitchcock , 1934 Z797048 1934 single work children's fiction children's fantasy

The first of P.L. Travers's novels about the magical nanny, Mary Poppins.

When Katie Nana, the much-tried nanny to the Banks family of 17 Cherry Tree Lane, finally storms out in a huff, the wind blows in Mary Poppins and her carpetbag. The Banks children find that Mary Poppins is stern, vain, and usually cross – but also has a touch of magic about her.

2
y separately published work icon Mary Poppins Comes Back P. L. Travers , London : Lovat Dickson and Thompson , 1935 Z1109749 1935 single work children's fiction children's fantasy

Mary Poppins comes back on the end of a kite string, stays with the Banks family for a while, and then disappears on a merry-go-round horse.

Source: Publisher's blurb

3
y separately published work icon Mary Poppins Opens the Door P. L. Travers , New York (City) : Harcourt Brace , 1943 Z936415 1943 single work children's fiction children's fantasy
4
y separately published work icon Mary Poppins in the Park P. L. Travers , New York (City) : Harcourt Brace , 1952 Z1109762 1952 single work children's fiction children's fantasy More adventures of Mary Poppins, Michael, Jane, the twins and baby Annabel. (Libraries Australia record).
5
y separately published work icon Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane P. L. Travers , London : Collins , 1982 Z964000 1982 single work children's fiction children's fantasy 'Mary Poppins, everyone's favourite nanny, takes the Banks children on another unforgettable adventure. On the most magical of nights, Midsummer's Eve, all kinds of strange things can happen--mythical visitors come down from the heavens and animals speak. But Mary Poppins takes it all in stride, drawing everyone, even the trembling Park Keeper, into the spirit of a romantic and magical holiday.' (Source: GoodReads)
6
y separately published work icon Mary Poppins and the House Next Door P. L. Travers , London : Collins , 1988 Z1110056 1988 single work children's fiction children's fantasy Luti, whom the formidable Miss Andrew has taken from the South Seas to London in order to civilize, feels the need to go home again, so Mary Poppins helps him get back to his island by way of the Man-in-the-Moon.(Libraries Australia record).

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

First known date: 1934-1989

Works about this Work

Forgotten Mary Poppins Illustrator Finally Recognised After International Search Reveals Rare Original Drawings Shelley Lloyd , 2020 single work column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , March 2020;

'Mary Poppins delighted audiences for generations — the magical British nanny made Julie Andrews famous, Walt Disney rich and delivered royalties and prestige for author P.L. Travers.'

Re-Storying P.L. Travers: Seduction, Betrayal, and a Fugitive’s Fairy Tale Sarah Pope , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 77 no. 1 2017; (p. 12-28)

'While the Mary Poppins stories have been affectionately received as literature for children since they were first published in 1934, their Australian-born P. L. Travers maintained that she never intended this to be the case. Rather the stories reveal fairy tale as it pertains to those who have lost their childhood: "Grown-ups" (Travers Complete Collection 96) who wish to reconnect with the organically live experience of the child. This act of revisiting and revising one's childhood for the purpose of catharsis is a familiar one and a verifiable tool for the many writers wishing to both expunge haunting memories and at the same time reconnect with a world of unfettered insight and impulse. Confusing the boundaries between memory and fantasy, writers continue to reinvent scenes from their childhoods that enter the collective imagination and become popular legends. The magical worlds of Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan's Never Land and Mary Poppins's Fairyland epitomise and inaugurate this reworking of childhood fantasies.' (Introduction)

Rules and Rhizomes : A Mary Poppins Sampler Margaret Mackey , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , vol. 24 no. 1 2016; (p. 1-29)

This article investigates some possible terminology through an exploration of some of the twists and turns in the saga of Mary Poppins, and explores the explanatory potential of the horticultural metaphor of the rhizome.

y separately published work icon Talking Animals in Children's Fiction : A Critical Study Catherine L. Elick , Jefferson : McFarland and Company , 2015 8673563 2015 multi chapter work criticism

'Talking-animal tales have conveyed anticruelty messages since the 18th-century beginnings of children's literature. Yet only in the modern period have animal characters become true subjects rather than objects of human neglect or benevolence. Modern fantasies reflect the shift from animal welfare to animal rights in 20th-century public discourse. This revolution in literary animal-human relations began with Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and continued with the work of Kenneth Grahame, Hugh Lofting, P.L. Travers and E. B. White. Beginning with the ideas of literary theorist Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin, this book examines ways in which animal characters gain an aura of authority through using language and then participate in reversals of power. The author provides a close reading of 10 acclaimed British and American children's fantasies or series published before 1975. Authors whose work has received little scholarly attention are also covered, including Robert Lawson, George Selden and Robert C. O'Brien.' (Publication summary)

Exploring the Mystery of Shared Origins : P. K. Travers's Mary Poppins Series Catherine L. Elick , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Talking Animals in Children's Fiction : A Critical Study 2015; (p. 91-119)

'P. L. Travers's series about Mary Poppins and Hugh Lofting's about Doctor Dolittle are unified by the extraordinary beings whose names appear in each title. Although both sets of books exhibit carnivalesque qualities, their central figures engender quite different responses. Lofting's Doctor is a great but flawed human being and, as demonstrated in the last chapter, readers' reactions to him fluctuate over the course of the series. Travers's nanny is a figure of mythic proportions, a still point at the center of the whirling changes she instigates, and she is consistently beloved and admired by the books' characters and readers. Whereas Doctor Dolittle is unfailingly kind, he is also unworldly and occasionally buffoonish; he is clearly a figure of misrule. Mary Poppins, by contrast, though frequently rude, is a figure of great authority, yet she uses her powers to subvert the status quo as much as the Doctor does. Although Doctor Dolittle acquires facility in animal languages through dedicated study, Mary Poppins is able to talk with animals simply because she is the Great Exception" (Mary Poppins 140),' the one being who continues to understand in adulthood the language spoken by animals and all human infants. Readers of Travers's series recall that Mary Poppins, like the Doctor, does on occasion act as translator and arbitrator for individual animals. She also narrates stories to her child charges about animals, both real and mythic, and mediates between the children and wild animals they encounter on magical adventures. Although Travers turns the tables in true carnival fashion and engineers scenes where the powerless become empowered, her series is not so much concerned with the social-justice issues of human cruelty to animals as it is with the spiritual exploration of shared animal-human origins. Travers's messages on this subject remain unchanging throughout the series, unlike Lofting's shifting tone. The idea of the interconnectedness of all life that is highlighted in "Full Moon," a chapter set in the zoo that occurs during Mary Poppins's first visit with the Banks family, is equally emphasized during her last visit in a chapter entitled "High Tide," a companion piece set at the bottom of the sea.' (Publication abstract)

There's Something About Mary Jodie Minus , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10-11 April 2004; (p. 6-7)
y separately published work icon Mary Poppins from A to Z P. L. Travers , New York (City) : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich , 1962 Z1109777 1962 single work children's fiction children's For each letter of the alphabet, there is a one page description of a character or incident based on the other Mary Poppins books, which contains the letter in question appearing many times at the beginning of words. (NLA catalogue record)
Australian Youth Literature and the Formation of Contemporary Australian Cultural Identity Bhim S Dahiya , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: IJAS , vol. 1 no. 1 2008; (p. 21-31)
Quite like the American literature in the 1830s, the Australian literature almost a century afterwards displayed an urges to carve out its own identity. Like Emerson and Thoreau, Hawthorne and Melville, Whitman and Mark Twain, the Australian writers of the early phase focused on where they saw marks of distinction, defining the new nation as a nation of their won, their own land.
Something About Mary Alan Saunders , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: The Monthly , June no. 57 2010; (p. 54-56)
Australia's Own Mary Poppins 2010 single work column
— Appears in: Australian Heritage , Winter no. 19 2010; (p. 7-8)
Last amended 13 Apr 2004 16:47:57
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X