Rereading Our Childhood

Rereading Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

Mary Grace McGeehan and Deborah Kalb Season 3 Episode 3

On this episode, we reread Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers's beloved 1934 classic. We discuss the difference between the book and the movie version of the magical nanny, changes in the book to remove racist portrayals, and Travers's strange and interesting life. 

Mentioned on the episode:

Other books in the series:

Mary Poppins Comes Back (1935)

Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943)

Mary Poppins in the Park (1952)

Also mentioned: 

Kathryn Hughes' 2005 Guardian review of Mary Poppins She Wrote: A Biography of P.L. Travers.

A Goodreads review of Mary Poppins by Julie G that discusses racism in Mary Poppins. 

A post on Mary Poppins on the website "American Indians in Children's Literature" 

Travers's 1996 New York Times obituary (gift link)

The trailer for Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

 Alli Hoff Kosik's childhood rereading podcast, SSR, which recently signed off after seven years.

Recommended for fans of Mary Poppins: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Pippi Longstocking (Deborah), The Edward Eager magic books, Ballet Shoes, and Harriet the Spy (Mary Grace) 

Other episodes mentioned:

Rereading Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

Rereading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

You can find Deborah at deborahkalb.com and Mary Grace’s adventures in the 1920s on her blog, My Life 100 Years Ago.

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.

Podcast website at rereadingourchildhood.com

People on this episode