{moszoomthumb imgid=602 itemid=74 style_m=2}by Julie Andrews Edwards
Harper Collins Children’s Books, 1974, 277 pages

Long before Harry Potter was introduced, there were other Potters in literature—Ben, Tom and Lindy, to be exact. Mary Poppins, aka Julie Andrews Edwards, brought them into existence two decades before J.K. Rowling had written a word about the boy wonder of Hogwarts. The similarities between Harry and the other Potters are remarkable. They are all young, restless children leading dull lives who learn that there are, in fact, other places and creatures out there in the world, unbeknownst to most adults. Wait, that’s almost every kids’ story ...

The Potter children of Edwards’ book learn about a giant mythical creature when they knock on Professor Savant’s door while trick-or-treating one Halloween, and he invites them inside to teach them about Whangdoodleland. (Gosh, that sounds so much dirtier than it was meant to be. And, oh yeah. Remember, children: don’t talk to strangers.)

Whangdoodleland is a world where there resides (you guessed it) the last of the really great Whangdoodles. See, once upon a time, these magical, imaginary animals lived on Earth, kept alive in people’s imaginations. But, over the years, as people’s suspension of disbelief grew smaller, they stopped believing in Whangdoodles, and the creatures died off. Now, the last remaining Whangdoodle lives in a world he created on his own—a world populated by other whimsical creatures, such as the High Behind Splintercat and the Gazooks.

Professor Savant, however, never stopped believing in Whangdoodles, and he teaches the Potter children how to travel to Whangdoodleland through use of their imaginations. Each time they try, they venture a little farther toward the heart of the city, where the great one lives. This frightens the Whangdoodle’s Prime Minister, the Oily Prock, who sets traps and tries to complicate things for the Potter children in order to keep the last of the really great Whangdoodles hidden and safe.

In “Great Whangdoodles,” Edwards covered ground that was laid by Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, Frank L. Baum and C.S. Lewis, but like her predecessors, the use of imagination and lack of realism leaves room for unlimited storytelling and endless ideas. Edwards wrote a spry, fun children’s book that is imaginative and colorful.

While “Whangdoodles” is a whimsical delight, it wasn’t a huge success upon release, and Edwards backed off from her role as author. Perhaps writing was an attempt to distance herself from her Mary Poppins image and show the world that she could do other things besides count spoons full of sugar. In 1981, in the film “SOB,” Edwards would further distance herself from that image by baring her breasts, which, up until that point, had been as mythical as Whangdoodles.