Mary Poppins – Mary Poppins from A to Z

P. L. Travers's Mary Poppins from A to Z is a playful alphabet book for 10 year olds, with a short Mary Poppins scene for every letter.

What happens

It isn't one long story. There are twenty-six little pieces, and each one is stuffed with words that begin with its letter. Every one of those words gets a capital, so it reads like a tongue-twister. B is for Admiral Boom, whose servant Bakes the Bread and Bangs the Barometer. It's much more fun than it sounds!

All the familiar faces from the Banks family's lane are here. Jane and Michael, John and Barbara, and baby Annabel. Miss Lark and her two dogs (one Winsome, one Wicked). The Bird Woman with her tuppenny bags of crumbs. And the Park Keeper, forever telling everyone to observe the rules.

Mary Poppins herself is as vain and brisk as ever. When Michael asks which great person she'd be if she got a wish, she gives him a gleaming, self-satisfied look and says "Mary Poppins." Of course she does.

Her old magic turns up in the small scenes too. A unicorn rests under her umbrella. Mrs Corry snaps off her own fingers and hands them out as sweets (don't worry, they grow back). The balloon woman floats away over the oak trees. And on a topsy-turvy Tuesday, Mary Poppins twirls through the air like a spinning top.

This is a book for a child who loves words. Some of the vocabulary is properly hard (Querulously, Kowtows, Kedgeree), and part of the fun is working out what they mean. It's lovely read aloud together, a letter a night. The last scene is a quiet one, with the whole nursery tucked up asleep, so it makes a very nice last read before bed.

One thing to check before you hand it over. A few words belong to an older time. On a rainy day the children are told to draw an island with "Indians" on it, and the New Year's Eve song is about Zulus in Zanzibar. It's brief, but some families will want to talk about it or skip those lines.

What to read next

If your reader wants more of the Banks family, Mary Poppins Returns carries the family on to when Jane and Michael are grown up, back at Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane. It opens with Jack the lamplighter cycling his round on a grey London morning.