Monday, August 10, 2009

Peter and the Starcatchers

I've read a whole slew of books recently, many of which won't be mentioned here, simply because they didn't hold my interest long enough for me to even finish them. (I used to believe it was a sin to not finish a book once it was started. Luckily for me (and my time) I've gotten over that. :-))

One, however, I will mention, mainly because I believe it deserves it:

Peter and the Starcatchers
3.5 out of 5 stars
Authors: Ridley Pearson and Dave Berry

Basically, this book explains how Hook became Hook and how Peter Pan became Peter Pan. These explanations were fun to discover as the story developed, and I had several "Ahah!" moments - even realizing that everything had been made up by Pearson and Berry. The characters were very entertaining and well thought out and I found myself worrying about them quite frequently while reading. I even worried for the "bad guys." Oh, and I LOVED the indians!

Perhaps the reason I didn't like this book so much was because it is written in the omniscient point of view. I found that the jumping from character to character was disconcerting and happened too frequently (even for an omniscient style book), especially during the more tense scenes. There were quite a few stories and characters to follow, much more so than usual, and especially for a children's book. It would have been better (in my opinion, of course) had it been written in third person. And another thing that disappointed me was the lack of humor (I mean come on - it's Dave Berry!). I'd actually picked it up hoping that it would be funny.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the story of Peter Pan.

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1 comment:

  1. It's a wonderful adventure story, yes. But as a prequel to Peter Pan I found myself disappointed. There are a LOT of mistakes from Barrie's original tales. Plus, Peter already had a backstory. It's like Barry & Pearson never bothered to read the Barrie!

    Although it also sort of "jumps around" between characters, there is a Pan novel faithful to and based on Barrie's idea for more. Click my name to see :)

    BELIEVE!

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