Finished: Mary Poppins

I must say, I do like the movie better. I think Disney did a good job of "cleaning up" this one. But maybe my opinion is jaded by the fact that I have seen the movie lots of times and I love Julie Andrews, coupled by the fact that it has only been recently that I've known the book has existed.

I have a few book warnings:

There is a creepy scene in the gingerbread shop where an old lady breaks off her fingers to give to twin babies. The fingers turn into a tasty treat, and they do grown back immediately onto the old women, but still. Babies eating other people's fingers? That wigs me out.

There is also a weird Eastern chanting like scene in the Zoo where Mary's birthday is being celebrated by the animals. It is rather mystical and has a Secret-Garden-Broadway-versionish quality about it. (I just love hyphens.)

There a few delightful scenes as well, though:

John and Barbara are twin babies, and there is a chapter devoted to them. Evidently, all under-ones can understand the language of animals. It is a comical chapter of them speaking rather properly back and forth, understood by Mary and a Starling that has come for a visit, but completely misunderstood by their own mother, for whom they stop crying simply because they love her, not because she actually even knows why they are crying. (I think my own babies can relate to this!) I was saddened at the end of the chapter, though. John and Barbara were adamant in their ability to retain their communicative abilities past the age of one. But their birthday comes, and all they can say is "Be-lah-belah-belah" and "Ba-loo -- ba-loo -- ba-loo".

The chapter about the bird woman is also delightful. Her language ability is very limited. I'll have to try her methods. She can only say "Feed the birds" and "Tuppence a bag". So when Jane and Michael say good-bye, the interchange is this: "Good-bye," said Michael to the Bird Woman. "Feed the Birds," she replied, smiling. "Good-bye," said Jane. "Tuppence a Bag!" said the Bird Woman and waved her hand. Come to think of it, I would probably drive my children crazy if I tried her methods. But then again, I drive them crazy anyway, so what's one more way?

I particularly enjoyed P.L. Travers' manner of writing and turning common nouns into proper ones. I think that I could probably write in that Manner, but I do enjoy Hyphens more, so I'll stick to hyphenation as my Schtick.