This Mary Poppins book is supposed to take place during the first three books in the series. It’s a collection of incidents that take place in the park. Each chapter is a short story, and each of the stories can stand alone.
I thought that the stories were fun, but there are a few instances of racial language that I didn’t like in the original version of the book. At various points throughout the original version of book, Mary Poppins chides the children for things they’re doing by calling them “Blackamoors”, cannibals on an island, or “Hottentots. ” In other words, she’s implying that they’re being “savages.” I know that notions of “savage natives” appear in other old children’s books, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to give modern children these ideas, and I don’t like it that Mary Poppins uses racial words as insults for the children in the story. Fortunately, later printings of this book rewrote these scenes to remove inappropriate racial language.
When I was writing this review, I told my brother the plot of one of the stories in the book,Lucky Thursday, and we had a good laugh over it. It was a pretty funny story to read. My brother asked whether the story was supposed to have a moral or teach children anything. I thought about it, and I suppose that part of the moral could be “Be careful what you wish for”, but in the end, I don’t think any real lessons were learned.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
Stories in the Book:
Every Goose a Swan – When everyone seems to be daydreaming and pretending that they’re someone they’re not, Mary Poppins tells the children a story about a vain goose girl and the others around her who have grand ideas about who they think they really are. When someone points out the realities of being the people they like to think they are, they all decide that maybe it’s better to just be themselves.
Faithful Friends – Miss Andrews, a neighbor of the Banks families, has been advised to go traveling for the sake of her health by her doctor. Before going away, she asks the Banks family to look after her “treasures” during her absence. Mrs. Banks puts them in the nursery because she knows that Mary Poppins will look after them, although Mary Poppins is a little put out by this extra duty. The “treasures” turn out to be a collection of random knickknacks, battered and incomplete. The children are particularly interested in a pair of hunters with lion friends, but one of them is mostly missing, and they think that the lion missing his hunter looks rather sad. By coincidence (apparently), they meet a couple of policemen who are reminiscent of the hunters. One of them used to live near a jungle but had to return home because he lost a foot, like the knickknack hunter. He’s been sad since he got back because he says he’s missing a friend. However, he gets his friend back when a loose lion suddenly appears in the park. When children get home, the missing hunter is back in the knickknack, and the lion looks happy.
Lucky Thursday – Michael is unhappy because the other children got to go to the park while he had to stay home with a cold. The only interesting thing that happens is that he sees a strange cat out the window. Michael goes to bed in a bad mood, but the next day, all sorts of lucky things begin happening. However, it turns out that it’s not quite as lucky as he thinks. First, he doesn’t take care of some of the nice things he receives and loses them. Then, the mysterious cat leads him on what seems like a magical journey from the park to a castle of cats, and he is told that everything he’s received has been because he wished on the Cat Star the night before. Part of what he wished was just disgruntled grumblings, though, and part of the cats’ idea of fun and games is to make Michael answer riddles. If Michael answers the riddles correctly, he’ll get to marry one of the cat princesses, and if he doesn’t, he’ll have to work in the kitchen of the castle with other children who made foolish wishes. Michael does answer the riddles correctly, but he doesn’t want to marry a cat, and he has a desperate struggle to escape from the castle of the cats. He only manages to escape when he blows Mary Poppins’s whistle.
The Children in the Story – The park keeper isn’t very happy about the fair set up near the park because it always leaves such a mess. Mary Poppins and the children are also in the park, and Jane is reading aloud from The Silver Fairy Book. She and Michael start talking about the princes in one of their favorite stories. Then, the three princes come out of the story to see Jane and Michael. The princes say that Jane and Michael are the children in the stories they read, and they’ve entered their own book to visit them. They say that they’ve visited generations of other children before.
The princes have brought their unicorn with them, and when adults around them start noticing that there’s suddenly a real unicorn in the park, they start panicking and arguing among themselves about whether the unicorn belongs in the zoo, in a museum, or as a sideshow at the fair. The adults seem to feel like the princes and unicorn are vaguely familiar, but they can’t seem to remember why. Most adults forget about the princes when they get older, but not all. Bert the matchman remembers, and it turns out that Mary Poppins has also been nanny to the princes.
The Park in the Park – The children are playing in the park on a hot day. Jane is making little figures out of plasticine and a little park for them all. Michael is hungry, and the baker figure comes to life and gives him pie. The children get to know the other figures, and Jane is amazed that the characters have lives that she didn’t create for them. The figures don’t seem to remember that Jane made their little world, and Jane and Michael are astonished to realize that they have now become child-size in the little park she created.
Hallowe’en – On Halloween, as the children are heading home with Mary Poppins with nuts and toffee apples, they meet the strange Mrs. Corey and her tall daughters. The children are told to be careful of stepping on shadows and that they should take care of their own shadows so they don’t run away. Mary Poppins hurries the children home and to bed, but the children find leaves that seem to be invitations to some kind of party. The children look outside and see shadows without people in the garden. The children follow the shadows, including their own, to the park. There, they see the shadows of everyone they know and even nursery rhyme characters. Mrs. Corey, her daughters, and Mary Poppins are there, and they explain that it’s the night before Mary Poppins’s birthday, and that’s what the celebration is about. They all dance with the shadows until Mrs. Boom arrives, upset, because her husband is distressed that his shadow is missing. Soon, other people also arrive to reclaim their shadows.
Mary Poppins Opens the Door by P. L. Travers, 1943.
This Mary Poppins book was written during World War II, and the author has an acknowledgement in the first chapter that things have changed because of the war. Like other Mary Poppins books, each chapter is its own short story, and the first one takes places on Guy Fawkes Day. A note at the beginning explains what Guy Fawkes Day is, and it also mentions that people haven’t celebrated it since the war began. However, the author says that she is sure that the situation is only temporary and that people will celebrate it once again after the war is over.
Sadly, people reading older versions of Mary Poppins books also have to be warned about the racial language. The stories are magical, but at the same time, one of the most grating things about the original printing of this book is that characters have a tendency to use racial language or racial terms as insults. When characters, even Mary Poppins, are irritated with each other, they’ll call people things like “Hottentot“, “black heathen”, “Blackamoor“, and similar things, implying that these people are behaving like “savages.” Some of the words the books use would be considered offensive by themselves, but it’s worse when they’re specifically used as insults. These incidents don’t take place in every story, but they happen throughout the original printing of this book, and they’re also found in other old Mary Poppins books. On a somewhat lighter note, I liked the character of Mrs. Clump, even though she’s an antagonist in one of the stories, because she used “vampire” and “pirate” as insults. If someone is going to use insults, I like them imaginative and funny like that. Fortunately, later reprintings of this book revised or removed the inappropriate racial language, so some people who grew up with the revised versions may not have even been aware that they were ever there.
This is the third time that Mary Poppins returns to the Banks household to be the children’s nanny. In the previous two books in the series, she came suddenly and left suddenly, without warning. Mrs. Banks finds it upsetting that Mary Poppins comes and goes so unexpectedly because she never knows if she can count on her to be with the children or if she will disappear suddenly. All the same, Mrs. Banks is always grateful when Mary Poppins comes because she’s so good at putting the household in order.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
Stories in the Book:
The Fifth of November – Mr. Banks is in a bad mood and declares that he won’t be home for dinner that night, upsetting his wife and children because it’s Guy Fawkes Day, and the family wants him to help set off fireworks. He won’t even shake hands with the chimney sweep, even though that’s supposed to be good luck. Part of the trouble is that the family is missing Mary Poppins, and they haven’t found anyone to replace her, leaving the house in disorder. Mrs. Banks considers hiring Mr. Banks’s old governess, but the children beg her not to because they know how strict she is. The discussion is interrupted by the chimney sweep. Mrs. Banks doesn’t remember scheduling the chimney sweep for the day, and the household staff panic at the idea of having to clean up after the chimney sweep. The chimney sweep offers to take the children to the park and set off some fireworks to give the household time to prepare for him, and the children eagerly accept. The chimney sweep and the park keeper set off fireworks with the children. For some reason, though, there are no sparks from the last rocket, and they can’t figure out why. As everyone else starts heading home, the children see something odd in the sky, a strange spark. It gets larger, and the children recognize it as Mary Poppins.
The children are overjoyed to see Mary Poppins again, and she takes them home. Mrs. Banks is also glad to see Mary Poppins again even though she’s still irritated at the way that Mary Poppins comes and goes suddenly without word or warning. Mr. Banks’s mood improves as well. Mary Poppins immediately starts making herself at home and putting things in order. She measures the children, but instead of learning their heights, she learns about bad habits they’ve developed. The children ask Mary Poppins if she’s going to stay with them this time, and she says that she’ll stay “until the door opens.” Jane is upset because the nursery door opens all the time, but Mary Poppins tells her that she means “the other door” without explaining what that means.
Mr. Twigley’s Wishes – When Mrs. Banks says that she needs to find a piano tuner, Mary Poppins recommends her cousin, Fred Twigley. She takes the children to Mr. Twigley’s house to see him. Mrs. Clump, the housekeeper, tries to send them away, but Mary Poppins pushes in anyway. Mr. Twigley has locked himself in a room. When Mr. Twigley finally lets Mary Poppins into the room with the children, they can’t see him at first. When Mary Poppins asks him what’s going on, Mr. Twigley explains that he’s been “wishing” and that he’s hiding from Mrs. Clump. He makes himself visible again and explains that, at certain times and under certain conditions, he has the ability to make seven wishes that come true. It’s a tricky business because it’s easy to waste wishes on whims and random thoughts. Mrs. Clump is scheming to marry him because she wants him to use his wishes to give her what she wants, and Mr. Twigley doesn’t want to marry her. When Mrs. Clump tries to come see him, Mr. Twigley suddenly wishes that he was somewhere safe, and he finds himself on one of the music boxes that he’s been making. Then, suddenly, the children also find themselves on music boxes. Mrs. Clump brings a policeman to deal with the chaos, and Mr. Twigley also traps Mrs. Clump and the policeman on music boxes. Mrs. Clump promises that she won’t try to force Mr. Twigley to marry her anymore if he lets her go. What Mrs. Clump had wanted Mr. Twigley to wish for her was a golden palace, so he shrinks her, turns her into a mechanical woman, and puts her into a music box golden palace.
The Cat that Looked at a King – Michael has a toothache the day after his birthday, and Mary Poppins says that it’s because he’s eaten too many sweets. Michael angrily tells Mary Poppins not to “look at him like that.” Mary Poppins says that “Even a cat may look at a king,” and the children and Mary Poppins talk about what the phrase means and if it’s true. A china cat from the mantelpiece comes to life and runs off. Mary Poppins tells the astonished children that the cat has gone to see the queen.
Mary Poppins begins telling the children a story about a king who thought that he knew practically everything, but he kept wondering about all sorts of random things that he doesn’t know. He would think of all sorts of random questions and then send his subjects out to find the answers for him. He kept everyone so busy with finding out random information and writing it down that ordinary tasks would be neglected. The queen feels neglected by the king, the kingdom is poor, buildings are crumbling because they aren’t being maintained, and the castle is infested with mice. Then, a cat comes to the castle and hunts the mice. Then, it sits on the king’s desk and stares at him. The king asks him what he’s doing, and the cat says that he wants to look at him. The king says the cat can look at him, and when the cat has had a good look, the king asks the cat what he thinks. The cat doesn’t think much of the king, and the king is offended because he thinks that his great knowledge deserves more admiration than that. The cat says that it knows everything, and the king says that’s impossible because even he doesn’t know everything. The cat says that cats know everything, and the king challenges the cat to prove it. The cat agrees to the challenge but sets the condition that whichever of them wins gets to govern the kingdom. As the king asks questions, the cat replies as if they’re all riddles. The king says that he’s not being serious and is missing the point, and the the cat says that all questions must have a point and his ridiculous questions don’t have one. The king is unable to answer any of the cat’s questions, but the queen, a page, and the prime minister can, so the cat says that he has the right to rule the kingdom with the help of the people who could answer the questions.
However, the queen, the page, and the prime minister all refuse to serve the cat because they are all dedicated to the king. The king repents of his foolish pride in his supposed knowledge and says that he’s not sure of who he is really anymore. The cat tells the king to look at him, and the king sees his own reflection in the cat’s eyes. When he sees himself, the king remembers that he’s actually King Cole, a merry old soul, and that he has no need of all these useless facts he’s been obsessing about. The cat says that he will let King Cole have the kingdom back if he can be allowed to visit the queen sometimes, and they agree.
The Marble Boy – Mary Poppins takes the children to the park, and although she doesn’t want to admit it, she is irritated that an old man is sitting in her favorite seat, reading a book. When the man closes the book and gets up, a statue of a boy with a dolphin suddenly leaps down from its pedestal and begs him not to stop reading yet because he’s been reading over the man’s shoulder and wants to finish the story. The shocked man apologizes but says that he has to get home to tea. The marble boy asks him if he can have the book, and the man is reluctant to part with it because he’s been wanting to read it for years, but he finally hands it over and leaves.
Jane and Michael ask the marble boy who he is and how a statue can read and jump off its pedestal. The boy says that his name is Nelius. He is an ancient statue from Greece that was separated from the rest of his family. He is often lonely, but he likes observing people in the park and reading over their shoulders. Mary Poppins, who Nelius says he knows because she’s an old friend of his father, tells Nelius to get back on his pedestal, but Nelius begs her to let him play with Jane and Michael awhile longer. Mary Poppins agrees that he can play with the children for the afternoon, but then, he has to get back on his pedestal before he’s missed.
Nelius enjoys spending time with Jane and Michael and going to the book stall with them. However, he does attract unwanted attention. Mrs. Lark sees his dolphin and thinks that he’s cruelly removed a fish from the water, and she says that she’s going to report him. Various people worry because Nelius is running around naked, so Mary Poppins gives him her jacket to wear. At the end of the afternoon, Nelius gives Jane the book the man gave him, asking her to let him read it over her shoulder, and he gives Michael some money that the man at the book stall gave him to buy clothes. By now, people have noticed that the statue is missing, and the mayor is demanding that the park keeper explain the situation.
Peppermint Horses – Jane and Michael take their father’s walking sticks because they want to play horses with them, like they’re riding hobby horses. Mary Poppins gives the the walking sticks back to Mr. Banks and takes the children and Robertson Ay, who works for the Banks family, on errands. The children get tired of walking and start getting cross. Then, they see a woman named Miss Calico with what looks like a bunch of large candy canes and a sign that says she has horses for rent. The children are confused because they don’t see any horses. It turns out that Miss Calico’s candy canes are magical mounts that people can ride. Mary Poppins rents some of these peppermint horses for the children and Robertson Ay, and they ride them home through the sky, along with other people they know. Mary Poppins rides on her umbrella instead because she never uses walking sticks. The children want to keep their magical candy canes forever and continue to ride them, but they’re only rented. Miss Calico comes around at night and collects them.
High Tide – Mary Poppins takes the children to visit Admiral Boom and his wife because their parents want to borrow a bottle of port from them. They give them the port and a seashell for the children to enjoy. Michael is curious about what port tastes like, and Jane is fascinated by the seashell. She says that she would like to go see the sea.
That evening, while Mary Poppins is still having her half day out, the children hear a voice from the seashell telling them to dive in. They do and find themselves under the sea. The voice from the shell was a trout, and the trout introduces them to other sea creatures and takes them to a garden party that the creatures are having to celebrate high tide. Of course, Mary Poppins turns out to be the guest of honor.
Happy Ever After – It’s New Year’s Eve, and Michael wants to know what happens between the first chime at midnight and the last chime because he’s been told that the old year ends at the first chime and the new one starts at the last chime. Mary Poppins refuses to answer. She takes the children’s toys away from them, lines them up, and puts open books in front of them, also without explaining why, just telling the children to go to sleep.
The children wake up at the first chime of midnight and see their toys come to life. The toys lead the children to the park, where they see all sorts of storybook characters. (Friday from Robinson Crusoe is a rather uncomfortable character.) They explain that the period between the first chime and last chime of midnight on the New Year is called “the Crack”, and it’s the only time of year when characters can come out of their books, provided that they’re left open, and all be friends with each other, even if they’re enemies in their stories. It’s the only time when they truly have Happily Ever After. So, they all have a party to celebrate the Crack, and naturally, Mary Poppins is the guest of honor.
The next day, Michael asks Mary Poppins if they’ll ever have happily ever after themselves, and she says that depends on him.
The Other Door – Mary Poppins’s friends show up to say goodbye to her, although they try not to let the children know that Mary Poppins is about to leave. They all have a dance together, and Mary Poppins takes the baby home from the park before the other children. Jane and Michael realize that Mary Poppins is about to leave when her friends talk about “the door.” They rush upstairs to the nursery, but they don’t see her until Jane spots her in the reflection of the nursery in the window. The door in the reflection is the “other door” that she’d been talking about, and that’s the door that Mary Poppins goes through to leave. The children’s parents come into the room, and the children tell them that Mary Poppins is gone. Mrs. Banks is upset, but Mr. Banks dances because he likes the music from her goodbye party, which is still going on. The family thinks that they see a shooting star, but that’s Mary Poppins leaving. Still, they make a wish not to forget Mary Poppins.
This book is a classic piece of children’s literature! This is the first book in a series of about the adventures of the Banks children with their magical nanny, Mary Poppins.
Mr. and Mrs. Banks of Cherry-Tree Lane have four children: Jane, Michael, and the infant twins, John and Barbara. When the story begins, the children’s nanny has just suddenly left her job with no real explanation. Mrs. Banks is beside herself, wondering what to do about this household upheaval, and Mr. Banks offers the practical suggestion that she should advertise for a new nanny in the newspaper. Mrs. Banks decides that’s a good idea, but a strange wind from the East brings an unexpected answer to this domestic problem.
When Mary Poppins arrives at the Banks’ house to take the position of nanny, it seems like she was blown there by the wind. When the children ask her, she says that’s indeed what happened, but she offers no other explanation. Mrs. Banks discusses the position of nanny with her, but it turns out that it’s more like Mary Poppins is interviewing her and evaluating the children to see if they’ll do. Mary Poppins refuses to provide references when Mrs. Banks asks for them (I would find that worrying), saying that people don’t do that anymore because it’s too old-fashioned. Mrs. Banks actually buys that explanation and doesn’t want to seem old-fashioned, so she stops asking. Mary Poppins basically grants herself the position of nanny as if she were doing the Banks’ family a favor. Maybe she is.
Jane and Michael can tell right away that Mary Poppins is no ordinary nanny. When she begins unpacking her belongings, it seems at first that her carpet bag is empty, but she soon starts pulling many different things out of it, including some things that should be too big to be in the bag at all. Then, she gives the children some “medicine” (she doesn’t say what kind of medicine it is or what it’s supposed to do) that magically tastes like everyone’s favorite flavor.
From there, the story is episodic. Each chapter is like its own short story.
On her day off, Mary Poppins meets up with the Match Man called Bert, who also paints chalk pictures, and when he doesn’t have enough money to take her to tea, they jump into one of his chalk paintings and have a lovely tea there. The children aren’t present for that adventure, but they do go to tea at Mary’s uncle’s house.
Mary’s uncle, Mr. Wigg, is a jolly man … maybe a little too jolly. It’s his birthday, which has filled him full of high spirits, and he literally can’t keep his feet on the ground. When they arrive, he’s hovering in the air. He says that it’s because he’s filled up with Laughing Gas because he finds so many things funny. It’s happened to him before, and he can’t get down to earth again until he thinks of something very serious. The whole situation is so funny that Jane and Michael begin to laugh and find themselves floating in the air, too. Even though Mary isn’t amused and doesn’t laugh, she makes herself float in the air also and bring up the tea table so they can all have their tea in midair. The merriment only ends when Mary Poppins finally tells the children that it’s time to go home, which is very serious indeed.
Mary Poppins understands what animals are saying, helping to sort out matters for a pampered and over-protected little dog who desperately wants a friend to come live with him. Then, when the children see a cow walking down their street, Mary Poppins says that cow is a personal friend of her mother’s and is looking for a falling star. On Mary Poppins’s birthday, she and the children attend a bizarre party in the zoo where the animals are their hosts.
There is an episode in the book which has some uncomfortable racial portrayals. It takes place when Mary Poppins shows the children how a magical compass can take them to different places around the world, and they meet people who are basically caricatures of different racial groups. (This episode has resulted in the book being banned by some libraries. P. L. Travers received complaints about it in her lifetime, and she revised the scene in later printings of the book, which is why you’ll see books labeled as “Revised Edition.” I have more to say about this scene, but I’ll save it for my reaction.)
Mary Poppins and the children visit a bizarre shop where the owner’s fingers are candy and grow back after she breaks them off and gives them to the children. (That’s actually pretty freaky.) The children save the gold paper stars from the gingerbread they buy at the shop, and later, they see Mary Poppins and the shop owner and her daughters putting the stars up in the sky.
There is a story about the babies, John and Barbara, and how they understand things that the adults and older children don’t, like what animals, the wind, and sunshine are saying. They are sad to learn that they will forget these things as they grow up.
Toward the end of the book, Mary Poppins takes the children Christmas shopping, and they meet Maia, one of the Pleiades (here she is considered to be a star as well as a mythological figure, and she looks like a young, scantily-clad girl), who has come to Earth to do her Christmas shopping as well.
In the end, Mary Poppins leaves the Banks family suddenly when the wind changes directions, flying off into the sky on the wind with her umbrella. She does not say goodbye, and the children are very upset. Mrs. Banks is angry with Mary Poppins for her sudden departure on a night when she was counting on her to be there to take care of the children. The children try to defend her, though, and say that they really want her back, even though she’s often cross with them. However, she does leave behind presents for the children that hint that she may come back someday.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
My Reaction
In some ways, the Mary Poppins in the original books isn’t quite as pleasant as Julie Andrews in the Disney movie version. The Mary Poppins in the book is vain and stuck up. She can be intimidating in her manner, refuses to answer questions, and even gets rude and snippy with the children. She was a little like that in the movie, but in the book, she’s even more so. After any strange or magical thing happens and the children want to talk about it, Mary Poppins gets angry at them and denies that any such thing happened at all. I found that rather annoying because it’s kind of like gaslighting, denying things happened when they really did happen. I think we’re meant to assume that’s because the adults aren’t allowed to find out that magical things have happened because they might put a stop to it or because Mary Poppins realizes that the children can only enjoy this kind of magic for a brief phase of their lives and that they’ll have to grow up in the more mundane world, just like the little twins can’t help but lose their ability to talk to animals. It’s a little sad, but I think it’s meant to provide some kind of rational explanation about how magic can exist in the world but yet go unnoticed by most people.
There is a Timeline documentary that discusses the life of P. L. Travers and how she felt about the Disney movie version of Mary Poppins. Although many people came to know and love the character through the Disney movie, and it made the books much more popular, P. L. Travers thought that the animated portions were silly and the characters weren’t represented as she wrote them.
I’d like to talk more about the racially-problematic episodes with the magic compass. A compass that can take people to different areas of the world just for asking is a good idea, but the people they meet in the places they go are all uncomfortable caricatures of different races. The one part that I’m not really sure about is how seriously these were meant. When I was trying to decide what to say about this, I considered the idea that aspects of this part of the story may have been meant as a parody of things from other children’s books and popular culture at the time. I have seen even older vintage children’s books that poke fun at concepts from earlier stories, so it occurred to me that this book might be making fun of concepts about people from around the world that young children of the time might have from things they’ve read in other books. There is a kind of humor throughout the book that involves puns and plays on certain ideas, like the way her uncle insists that he floats when he’s in a humorous mood because he’s buoyed up by “Laughing Gas”, which is not what real “Laughing Gas” is. It’s like what a child might picture as “Laughing Gas”, if they didn’t already know what that term means. It’s possible that part of this scene might be parodying other children’s fantasy books about magical travel, but it’s still very uncomfortable to read the original version of this scene, if you don’t have one of the revised editions of the book.
On the other hand, I suspect that the author isn’t really that thoughtful or self-aware by the way the adult characters speak throughout the book series. At the end of the book, when Michael is upset at Mary Poppins suddenly leaving and he throws a fit and argues with her, his mother tells him not to act like a “Red Indian.” I’m not entirely clear on what that comment was supposed to mean in that context, but Mrs. Banks uses it as if she does, so it seems that there is some implied insult there, maybe equating Michael’s behavior to being “savage” or “uncivilized” or something of that nature. Even Mary Poppins herself uses racial language throughout the series, using words like “hottentot” or “blackamoor” to criticize the children when they misbehave. It makes me think that the author was accustomed to that kind of talk herself. If Mary Poppins can get snooty as a character, I think I have the right to express my disapproval of her behavior as well.
While I like the basic character of a magical nanny who takes children on magical adventures, I don’t like either those comments or the compass scenes because the obvious caricatures are uncomfortable, and I don’t think they make good story material for children. I would recommend saving that version for adults who are interested in reading or studying nostalgic literature and use the revised versions for children, who would probably just prefer to have a story they can enjoy for fun without needing a lesson on racial attitudes of the past to understand it. If they’re curious, they can always have a look at the original later, when they’re old enough to understand it better and put it perspective. In the revised compass scenes in later books, some printings still have people but some of the offensive words removed, and in later printings, the children meet different types of animals instead of people.
Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories 