GranJan Reads

The first in a series of eight books, "Mary Poppins" by P.L. Travers was published in 1934.

According to Wikipedia, Chapter Six, "Bad Tuesday," was rewritten twice:

• The original story in the 1934 edition contained a variety of cultural and ethnic types of Chinese, Native Alaskan or Inuit, sub-Saharan Africans, and Native Americans. Travers responded to criticism by revising the chapter twice. A 1967 revision removed offensive words and stereotypical descriptions and dialogue, but kept the plot of visiting foreign people, and retained drawings of ethnic stereotypes standing at the compass-points. In 1981 a second revision replaced people with animals; original illustrator Mary Shepard altered the four compass points in the accompanying drawing to show a polar bear at the north, a macaw at the south, a panda at the east, and a dolphin at the west. Mary Poppins had been banned from circulation in the San Francisco Public Library system in 1980 due to the negative stereotyping.

The edition I am reading is the one I received as a Christmas gift in 1959 (I was seven). Skip chapter 6 if you think you'll be offended by the original.

Copyrighted in 1962, The Diamond in the Window is one of several children's books written by Jane Langton. Set in Concord, Massachusetts, the story is about Eleanor (10) and Eddy (8) Hall, orphaned siblings who live in a grand but shabby Victorian house with their Aunt Lily and her older brother Uncle Freddy.

The children discover a secret room at the top of the house and...well, you'll just have to listen to find out what happens next!

Linnets and Valerians, written by Elizabeth Goudge, was published in 1964 by Coward-McCann, Inc., New York. I received the book as a 12-year-old and was thoroughly enchanted by the story of the Linnet children set in the countryside of Devonshire, England, in 1912. I hope you will be enchanted, too!

Written by George MacDonald and first published in 1926 by MacMillan, The Princess and The Goblin is a wonderful tale of a young girl, a young boy, and goblins. Filled with mystery and magic, surprises and suspense, the book was a gift to my mother when she was 10 years old. She read it to me and my brothers when we were children, and I read it to my daughters when they were young. Now I read it for you!

Published in 1910, The Secret Garden was written by Frances Hodgson Burnett and tells the story of an unhappy and unloved, orphaned young girl in Yorkshire, England.