Publisher's Synopsis
Peter Pan, the book based on J.M. Barrie's famous play, is filled with unforgettable characters: Peter Pan book, the boy who would not grow up; the fairy, Tinker Bell; the evil pirate, Captain Hook; and the three children--Wendy, John, and Michael--who fly off with Peter Pan to Neverland, where they meet Indians and pirates and a crocodile that ticks. Renowned children's-book artist Michael Hague has brought the amazing adventures of Peter Pan to life. His beautiful illustrations capture the wild, seductive power of this classic book. This newly designed edition will be enjoyed by fans young and old alike.
About J.M. Barrie:
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan.
The son of a weaver, Barrie studied at the University of Edinburgh. He took up journalism, worked for a Nottingham newspaper, and contributed to various London journals before moving to London in 1885. His early works, Auld Licht Idylls (1889) and A Window in Thrums (1889), contain fictional sketches of Scottish life and are commonly seen as representative of the Kailyard school. The publication of The Little Minister (1891) established his reputation as a novelist. During the next 10 years Barrie continued writing novels, but gradually his interest turned toward the theatre.
"My children wanted to do our read aloud outside this evening. So we went on the patio and I began reading "Peter Pan." I read about how the mermaids would play with the bubbles, but when the children would come they would all disappear, but they would secretly watch. Pretty soon I hear over the fence our 11 year old neighbor boy say, "Is that Peter Pan neverland?" "Yes," I say, "Would you like to come listen?" "I've been listening from here," he says. So I go on and read about Wendy's rule that all the boys must take a nap after they eat and they are all settled on marooners rock when an eery darkness begins to spread of the lagoon.
"Oh, it must be Hook!" and the neighbor is now perched on top of the fence. We go on to the fight and Peter is wounded and can't fly nor swim and is left with Wendy on the rock and the tide is coming in. "Oh...but they can't really drown. They don't drown. Do they?" And the boy is now over the fence. There is a kite, Peter fastens Wendy to it and it carries her away. Peter looks out bravely and says 'to die will be an awfully big adventure.' The chapter ends and the neighbor boy is beside us. I smile and ask, "Do you guys want another chapter?" "Well, if you want to," says the boy and so there is a devoted neverbird, a mother sitting on her nest that has fallen out of the tree and is now bobbing up and down in the gentley lapping waters of the lagoon... "
" I can't believe I've never actually read Peter Pan until now. I'd seen the Disney version, but this is both more charming and more sinister than that. There are lots of sweet little details, like mothers tidying up their children's thoughts, and the kiss on the corner of Mrs Darling's mouth.
But Peter is a monstrous sort of figure when you get past the romance of Neverland. He's a wild boy, selfish and cocky. Instead of being a kind of example of innocent childhood, he almost brings to mind the boys from Lord of the Flies. Near the end, it says that he nearly stabs Wendy's baby! And he steals other children.
Of course, the moral of the story is that children need mothers. It's just charming enough to get away with the moralising. "
