Mary Poppins has returned to Cherry Tree Lane, and the Banks children join her for adventures that take them from the Park to the stars. P.L. Travers wrote eight Mary Poppins books, and this collection of episodes extends the magical governess's stay. Jane and Michael meet the Goosegirl, whose wishing well grants wishes in unexpected ways. They argue with cats on a distant planet. They dance with their own shadows on a birthday. Travers, an Australian-born writer who spent most of her life in England, created Mary Poppins during the Depression as a figure of authority and mystery. Poppins never explains her magic or admits that anything extraordinary has occurred. She is vain, cross, and wonderful, the kind of governess children obey because they cannot predict what she will do next. The adventures in this book are smaller in scale than those of the first volumes but no less imaginative. Travers draws on folklore and her own dreaming to create episodes that feel both impossible and inevitable. The prose has a formal cadence that rewards reading aloud. Readers who know Mary Poppins only from the Disney film will discover a stranger, sharper character in these books, one who challenges as much as she delights.