The first book about Mary Poppins, will be familiar to everyone who has seen the film. For it is in this book that Jane and Michael draw up their advertisement for a nanny, and Mary Poppins appears out of the sky with her parrot-headed umbrella which talks. She is strict but fair, slides happily up the banisters, and takes the children on the most extraordinary outings - to a funfair inside a pavement picture; to uncle Andrew who sails up to the ceiling when he laughs - which she firmly denies