Book #85: Mary Poppins Comes Back by P. L. Travers

I feel a little like I am cheating, reviewing this one, because I didn't actually finish it--I was about 80% done with it when I returned it to the library. But since it would have taken me less than a half-hour to finish it and I only didn't because I didn't want to, I figured I would count it. This book was equally as adorable and fun as the first Mary Poppins book--equally being the key word. Most of the stories (each chapter being a different story) start to feel redundant after a while and start to get a lot less interesting. I think as a child, I loved that sort of repetition, but now as an adult, it made me a lot less likely to want to read it. (For example, in the first MP, Mary takes the Banks kids to see one of her relatives for tea, and while they're there, they magically float up to the ceiling the whole time. In the second MP, they go visit another relative and spend the whole time upside down. It's the exact same story, just a different character.) I just didn't feel like I needed to keep reading to get the gist of this book, since it was so similar to the first one--but you guess that's why the charm of Mary Poppins was so strong, because the adventures were so sweet and charming and somewhat predictable through their magic.