So Mary Poppins continues to be not-especially affectionate, pretty grumpy, very uppity, and incredibly vain. Yet she's grown on me in this second book. Not because she's changed but my perception of her has changed. She has to have these characteristics to balance out the adventures and to keep the magic in the realm of reality. Perhaps that doesn't make sense, but I think her attitude keeps the book delightfully "normal" somehow. Anyway, we went ahead and read the next one -- Mary Poppins Opens the Door -- and we enjoyed that. We were both fine with being done after that, though there are two or three more that take place during the other stories.