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I knew the basic Peter Pan story and have seen Hook multiple times, but had never read the book before. And there was plenty of unfamiliar information. One evening, Peter Pan comes to find his shadow (which had been previously lost and stored at the Darlings house), and he takes the three children -- Wendy, John, and Michael -- with him. They go to have adventures together in Neverland, with Wendy to be the mother for all the lost boys (including her two brothers and peter, of course). Neverland is inhabited by the Lost Boys, Pirates, Redskins, Beasts, and the Crocodile. And adventures there are!

Peter comes to Wendy and she is kind to him. She sews his shadow back on so he can't lose it again. So he offers to take her (and her brothers) to Neverland. He teaches them to fly and off they go to have adventures. This leaves their parents and Nana without them for a long while. Peter is one of the most selfish characters I've come across in literature. Barrie portrays that as being one of his charms, in that he is so selfish that others care for him and are gentle with him and allow him to continue on as such. Someone who is selfish and demands his own way might be enjoyable and 'cute' for a bit -- but in real life that is not the case. Life is brightened when we make a point to care for others as well as ourselves. Wendy loves being a mother (of sorts) to the Lost Boys, putting them to bed and making sure they take their medicine and such things. I guess it's disappointing to have as a 'hero' a young boy who will not grow up and insists on living only in the present without care for others. Enjoyable for a story, but definitely not characteristics I'd seek out in a friend.

Title:	Peter Pan
Author:	J.M. Barrie
Date published:	1911
Genre:	Children's Literature, Fantasy
Number of pages:	185
Notes:	Borrowed from Teodora

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The story of Peter Pan is so familiar to most of us-- I grew up with children's books and I think even an audio version of it. After "Finding Neverland" came out, I read an article that said the original Peter Pan is much darker than the versions we are familiar with, and that intrigued me. While there is a very playful quality to the writing of the book, and some of the comments that the narrator makes are quite witty (the writing seems like it would be above most children), Peter himself is not a very admirable character. He is unreliable, conceited, selfish, and proud-- even though he is still somehow admirable to those around him: the Lost Boys follow him unquestioningly, and all of the females (Wendy, Tiger Lily, Tinker Bell) seem to be in love with him.

I've always thought that "Hook" was a fabulous movie, but after reading this I have confirmation-- so many of the lines and phrases, and even the way they chose to continue the story... They did such a great job of choosing passages and lines directly directly from Barrie's original (except for the fact that Captain Hook is still alive), and adapting them to the new story. Even one of my favorite lines from the end of "Hook" is an adaptation from Peter Pan; after Peter saves Tiger Lily and Wendy, he is exhausted and stranded on a rock in the lagoon with the water rising, and he thinks to himself "to die will be an awfully big adventure".

Title:	Peter Pan
Author:	J. M. Barrie
Date published:	1911 (original publication; electronic edition 1991)
Genre:	Fantasy / Children's Literature
Number of pages:	132
Notes:	Read electronic text freely available (in the U.S.) from Project Gutenberg.

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