Saturday, September 25, 2004
Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Peter and the Starcatchers is a prequel to Peter Pan. Since J. M. Barrie is long dead, the prequel is written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.
In answer to the question of how Peter met Hook, these authors have come up with an ingenious story that would never have occurred to J.M. Barrie. There are lots of swashbuckling pirates and tense situations. Hook, then known as "Black Stache" is already a notorious pirate and Peter is a boy of indeterminate age (somewhere between 10-13). The story starts on the docks as Peter and some other orphan boys are loaded onto a disreputable ship and ends on the newly named "Never Land" island. Along the way some of our favorite characters meet and mingle with characters developed just for this book.
I may be remembering the Disney movie and not the original book (it has been a while since I read it) but I thought Peter was lost when he was a baby and he remembered that being lost in a shadowy way. Certainly he would remember if he had been 10-12 when the big change happened. Right? Peter seemed an awful lot more mature than in Peter Pan which was disconcerting. Though a boy may (by magic) not grow up, it bothered me that he seemed to regress. I suppose it is a hazard of writing to make characters more what we would be if we were in the story.
Several times I wished the story would move a little faster. If it had, they probably could have cut 120 pages off the length without hurting the story flow or leaving out fun and story building information.
I liked the book. It was very entertaining! I read it in about a day and have set it aside for several children ages 8-14. I bought it for less than $11 at Costco, so if you are not going to buy it from an Independent Bookstore I recommend Costco.
In answer to the question of how Peter met Hook, these authors have come up with an ingenious story that would never have occurred to J.M. Barrie. There are lots of swashbuckling pirates and tense situations. Hook, then known as "Black Stache" is already a notorious pirate and Peter is a boy of indeterminate age (somewhere between 10-13). The story starts on the docks as Peter and some other orphan boys are loaded onto a disreputable ship and ends on the newly named "Never Land" island. Along the way some of our favorite characters meet and mingle with characters developed just for this book.
I may be remembering the Disney movie and not the original book (it has been a while since I read it) but I thought Peter was lost when he was a baby and he remembered that being lost in a shadowy way. Certainly he would remember if he had been 10-12 when the big change happened. Right? Peter seemed an awful lot more mature than in Peter Pan which was disconcerting. Though a boy may (by magic) not grow up, it bothered me that he seemed to regress. I suppose it is a hazard of writing to make characters more what we would be if we were in the story.
Several times I wished the story would move a little faster. If it had, they probably could have cut 120 pages off the length without hurting the story flow or leaving out fun and story building information.
I liked the book. It was very entertaining! I read it in about a day and have set it aside for several children ages 8-14. I bought it for less than $11 at Costco, so if you are not going to buy it from an Independent Bookstore I recommend Costco.
# posted by JJ @ 5:29 PM 
