Hi Disney Folks!
I just finished the first book in Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's series designed to be a prequel imagining of Peter Pan. Since it's published by Disney-Hyperion, the children's book publishing arm of Hyperion Books (owned by the Walt Disney Company), and since I loved it, I thought I'd do a quick review here.
For those of you who haven't heard of Peter and the Starcatchers, it's really a wonderful beginning to a series aimed to create the world that Peter Pan came from, and explain how it is that he and Captain Hook truly became enemies. In J.M. Barrie's book and in the many retellings out there, very little is known about how Hook and Peter wound up in Neverland, and why they were enemies. All we really know is that Peter cut off Hook's hand at some point, fed it to a crocodile, and now Hook is on the run from that crocodile, and out for revenge. Barry and Pearson took on the task of explaining how this all came to be, and though they deviate from what might be considered "canon" in the Peter Pan stories (for example, Neverland is an island, not a star) they do it in a way that really works for the story, and was a good blending of Barrie's original and Disney's famous variation. My only complaint was the treatment of the creation of Tinker Bell, because I like the way she's created in Barrie's version better, but it does make sense with the plot line (don't worry, I won't spoil it!)
Peter is an orphan who is sold into slavery with some other orphan boys to work on a ship carrying a mysterious cargo. It's this cargo that creates the mysterious world of Neverland-complete with mermaids, this cargo that gives Peter the ability to fly, and this cargo that initiates the battle royal between Peter and Hook (Black Stache in this story, because of his impressive mustache). There are some friends and enemies that you may not recognize, but they help to set the scene for familiar characters to emerge later (and I'm assuming they will)! This was a fun and fast read, full of epic adventure and a touch of whimsy to tie it all together. The other thing I really enjoyed about this book was that it was, in my opinion, very age appropriate for its ages 10 and up rating (which isn't always the case with YA fiction) but also really fun for anyone of any age to read--especially if you like Peter Pan the way I do.
All in all, this book is a great read, and very like much of Disney's work in other areas--great for kids, but also lots of fun for adults!
Also, for those of you who might be in the NYC area- Peter and the Starcatchers is also a Tony Award winning play (it has singing and dancing, but they still call it a play) and if you can't make it to NYC the rumor is that Disney is working on a movie version of the story as well!
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