Poppins, Mary, is an English nanny (children’s nurse) with magical powers in a popular series of books created by the Australian writer P. L. Travers. The first book in the series, Mary Poppins, was published in 1934, and its success led to seven related books.
In the first book, the wind blows Mary Poppins to the Banks household at Number Seventeen Cherry Tree Lane in London after the family’s current nanny quits. In the first book, the Banks family consists of Mr. and Mrs. Banks and their four children, Jane, Michael, and the infant twins John and Barbara. A new baby, Annabel, is introduced in the second book. Mary Poppins is a stern woman, but her magical powers enable her to escort the Banks children on many fantastic adventures, such as holding a tea party on the ceiling of their home and enjoying a birthday party with animals at the zoo.
Mary leaves suddenly at the end of Mary Poppins. She returns and leaves again in the next two books, Mary Poppins Comes Back (1935) and Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943). The last five books in the series recount adventures that took place during Mary’s three visits. These books are Mary Poppins in the Park (1952), Mary Poppins from A to Z (1962), Mary Poppins in the Kitchen (1975), Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane (1982), and Mary Poppins and the House Next Door (1988). All the books were illustrated by Mary Shepard, an English artist and the daughter of Ernest Shepard, the original illustrator for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories by the English children’s writer A. A. Milne.
The Mary Poppins stories were adapted into a popular Walt Disney musical motion picture in 1964 that starred Julie Andrews in the title role. The film was adapted into a stage musical that opened in London in 2004 and in New York City in 2006.
See also Travers, P. L. .
