A tale of innocence, childhood, and pure imagination, this is a 3 on the 5-star Reading System.
“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.”
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Second star to the right, and straight on till morning, you will find the world of Neverland! In a place that is pure child, free from the restrictions of political correctness, and questions of right and wrong, a handful of children live out their fantasies: fighting pirates, playing with Indians, and talking to fairies. When you read Peter Pan, you remember what it was like to be a child.
Although James Barrie presents a riveting account of the mind of a child, he goes deeper than those imaginative boundaries and invites the reader to be compassionate about the journey of growing up. He reminds us, with swashbuckling adventures, mean-girl mermaids, callous-hearted boys, and selfish fairies, that the life of a child is not all roses and rainbows. It is a confusing, mixed-up place, where right and wrong are jumbled up in a child’s heart as much as in a tiny fairy’s, making both children and fairies vacillate between being either all good or all bad. “Tink was not all bad: or, rather, she was all bad just now, but, on the other hand, sometimes she was all good. Fairies have to be one thing or the other, because being so small they unfortunately have room for one feeling only at a time. They are, however, allowed to change, only it must be a complete change.” Thus it is for the young, and James Barrie reminds us that for a child, morality really is black and white.
“Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough. You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.”
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Join Wendy as she flies to Neverland and discovers, through loss and heartbreak, the negative consequences of staying a child forever.
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About James Barry
Read Full Bio on Biography.com
Born on May 9, 1860, in Scotland, J.M. Barrie was a Scottish dramatist, best known for writing Peter Pan in 1904, or The Boy Who Would Never Grow Up. The son of Scottish weavers, he moved to London to pursue his interest in becoming a playwright. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys who inspired his masterpiece. Based on Barrie’s enchanting characters, Disney created the animated classic, Peter Pan, in 1953.
“Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.”
J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
Excerpt from Peter Pan
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