I picked up this book in my school library when I was in the fourth grade. The book looked pretty old, which got me excited-my favorite Disney movie had been based on a book? Really this was too good to be true.
For the most part, the characters were the same (in the books the Bank's have more children, but Jane and Michael are older and go on most of the adventures) and the adventure scenes in the movie were reminiscent of adventures the characters take in the book, that was really where the similarities end. P.L. Travers's Mary Poppins makes Disney's "firm" version look like a spoon full of sugar the entire movie through. On the surface, the book Mary Poppins seems to never be enjoying herself. She is always cross. She is also always right and doesn't tolerate anyone who thinks otherwise.
However, this is the appeal of the book. There is something reassuring in Mary's demeanor. She knows herself, she shows up to the Bank's house because she is sure they need her help. Also, in the book it is implied that Bert is more than her friend, but it seems that Mary makes the calls in that relationship, too.
During one of the adventures they go on an around the world trip which involves a description of stereotypes of people not of Western European decent. In the early 80's Travers rewrote the chapter so that these characters were animals instead of people. Reading an older version of the book in fourth grade, the racism in the book irked me, but at 10 I didn't have the language to explain how these portrayals of people made me feel. I think there was a feeling that if the P.L. Travers was capable of writing a book I otherwise really enjoyed, I have no place in calling her out, which I now see as completely not true. However, I think this shows the influence children book authors have over their audience and how the content of what is written needs to be taken into account.
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