There’s quite a story behind the creation of Peter Pan.  How creator J M Barrie created the stories to entertain a dear friends children, how he first wrote the material down into a popular play format and subsequent novel, and how he left all proceeds from the creation of Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital which still owns the copyright today.  But what we don’t know is where Peter Pan came from himself.  Sure there are brief references in many of the works, but there is no extended origin for the boy who never grew up.  Well, there is now.

PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS

Humorist Dave Barry and suspense novelist Ridley Pearson have crafted quite a clever prequel to the Pan that we’ve known since we were youngsters.  Spurred on by the phenomenal success of the Harry Potter books, they approach the story with a sly sense of humor and intelligent story structure.  Just shy of 500 pages, the book is solidified for the older teen to adult who never grew up age groups.

The story follows several groups that are hunting down a chest filled with starstuff, more familiar to us as pixie dust.  Each group has their reasons for needing the magical material inside, and in typical Disney fashion, those that have the best intentions win out in the end.  Along the way, the trunk provides a load of twists and turns, leading us to a point where we recognize the rules of Neverland at their infancy.  Creatures change and morph and characters grow and evolve.  It bridges well to an eventual Captain Hook and a Peter Pan story that we know so well.  It has got savages and mermaids, Pirates and lost boys and if any of those things are of interest to anybody, the book is worth a few nights reading.

One area where this book strays from the Harry Potter mode is in the extreme focus.  Early on we are introduced to the goal and the entire book sticks with that pursuit pretty aggressively.  It lacks the episodic nature of much of the boy wizard’s experiences.

There are a couple more ties of interest with PETER AND THE STARCATCHERS.  Firstly, the book which spent over 47 weeks on the New York Times best seller list is to be developed as a 3-D CGI film by Disney animation.  But even more interesting to us here in Passamaquoddy, the book is available in an audio version recorded by Jim Dale who played our very own Doc Terminus in Disney’s film PETE’S DRAGON.  If he does as well as he did with the Harry Potter audio recordings, this is one not to miss…

If you are interested in other book reviews from Passamaquoddy, search for “Bookworm” in the search engine to the right.