The Children in the Story

In the book "Mary Poppins in the Park," there's a very sweet chapter in which the characters of a fairy tale Jane and Michael are reading come to life. Jane and Michael believe they have gone into the story of "The Three Princes," but the Princes (and their unicorn) believe they have traveled into the story of Jane and Michael. Which is amusing on different levels-the reader knows that Jane and Michael are, in fact, only characters in the story, yet it still causes you to think that maybe the characters we read about are just as real as we are...and, in fact, in a way the characters are more permanent:
""But-" she protested. "How can it be? You are in Once Upon a Time. And that is long ago."
"Oh, no!" said Veritain. "It's always. Do you remember your great-great-great-great-grandmother?"
"Of course not. I am much too young."
"We do," said Florimund, with a smile. "And what about your great-great-great-great-granddaughter? Will you ever see her, do you think?"
Jane shook her head a little wistfully. That charming far-away little girl-how much she would like to know her!
"We shall," said Veritain confidently.
"But how? You're the children in the story!"
Florimund laughed and shook his head.
"You are the children in the story! We've read about you so often, Jane, and looked at the picture and longed to know you. So today-when the book fell open-we simply walked in. We come once into everyone's story-the grand-parents and the grand-children are the same to us. But most people take no notice." He sighed. "Or if they do, they forget very quickly. Only a few remember."
Jane's hand tightened on his sleeve. She felt she would never forget him, not if she lived to be forty."

The princes, in the book, step out of the Silver Fairy Book. Which, when I read it, I assumed was one of the Andrew Lang colored fairy books. After searching for it, it turns out that there is no Silver Fairy Book, or a story about the three Princes Veritain, Florimund, and Amor, that I could find. It would have been nice if it were more well-known fairy tale children, like Hansel and Gretel, because the reader could relate to them more. Later in the chapter, the adults in the story are tested and all fail to recognize the fairy tale characters but for a brief moment when they remember their childhood-except, of course, for Mary Poppins and Bert, who always remember.

The movie "Mary Poppins" is possibly the only movie to ever be better than the books on which it was based, so the books tend to get overshadowed (I might put "Pinocchio" into this category as well, I found the book a bit frustrating...). But this is not for lack of quality in the books, so they are definitely worth reading, for children or adults.

The Mary Poppins books were written by P.L. Travers and illustrated by Mary Shepard.

Fairy Tale Nannies

Tomorrow I start my summer nannying job! I'm looking forward to it, but I'll be going from working part time to more than full time, so likely posting will slow down.

But in honor of this occasion we'll take a quick look at some famous fantastical nannies. In traditional folklore, there are hardly any nannies. The poor people of the tales could hardly afford to pay someone else to raise their children. Sometimes babies of royalty will have nurses, like the prince in the Russian tale who was told by his nurse of the most beautiful girl in the world, and set off to find her when he was only a few days old-but nannies in general are a relatively recent thing.

So the more famous magical nannies are more recent. The movie Nanny McPhee is based on the Nurse Matilda books by Christianna Brand. I haven't read the books but love this movie-the actors (even the kids!), the music, the magical scenery, the plot-it's just overall a quality family movie. But in a way it irks me that the only way Nanny McPhee can control the children is through her magic stick. If only I had that stick I could control any situation too, but I don't.

My ultimate nanny hero is Mary Poppins. She uses magic too, but I like to think that her magic is really just getting the kids to use their imagination. And talk about quality films-EVERYTHING about this movie is excellent. Also based on earlier books (the Mary Poppins series by P.L. Travers), many prefer the movie to the books (and I'm so glad Disney hasn't attempted to remake a more modern version of this movie-*shudder*).

And just for fun...one of the best recut movie trailers is definitely Scary Mary Poppins.

Never before has Mary Poppins seemed so sinister...

Designer Princess

One of my favorite fashion bloggers is Alix, The Cherry Blossom Girl. If you go through her archives, she's put together several modern and designer clothes and accessories to create outfits modeled after certain fairy tale characters.

Sleeping Beauty

As a peasant:

As a Princess whose dress color is being fought over by fairies:

Mary Poppins

Alice in Wonderland

Dorothy

Donkeyskin

A dress the color of weather:

A dress the color of the moon:

A dress the color of the sun:

Follow the links for more information on the individual peices, or in some cases, more accessories and outfits.