book review peter pan

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Explaining the News to Our Kids

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Common sense media reviewers.

Magical adventure has stereotypes, offensive language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Readers will learn a little about middle-class Eng

In loving families, the window is always open.

The few female characters set the best examples. W

Before the events in the story, Peter cut off Capt

Tinkerbell calls Peter a "silly ass." Native Ameri

Parents need to know that J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan is a celebration of childhood and imagination. Magical Peter takes three English siblings across the sky to where he lives in Neverland to have adventures among pirates, fairies, mermaids, wild animals, Lost Boys, and a Native American tribe. However, young…

Educational Value

Readers will learn a little about middle-class English family life at the beginning of the 20th century.

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

The few female characters set the best examples. Wendy is kind, patient, and caring with Peter, her brothers, and the Lost Boys. Tinkerbell is loyal to Peter and saves his life. Tiger Lily is brave and loyal as well.

Violence & Scariness

Before the events in the story, Peter cut off Captain Hook's hand. Wendy is shot with an arrow and believed dead. Children are captured by pirates and told they must walk the plank. There's an attempted murder by poisoning.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Tinkerbell calls Peter a "silly ass." Native Americans are repeatedly called "redskins," and at one point, Peter refers to them as "Piccaninny warriors."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan is a celebration of childhood and imagination. Magical Peter takes three English siblings across the sky to where he lives in Neverland to have adventures among pirates, fairies, mermaids, wild animals, Lost Boys, and a Native American tribe. However, young readers will benefit from some at-home or classroom discussion about the story's outdated sexist and racist stereotypes. As Wendy plays "mother" to the boys in the novel, she takes on a very old-fashioned motherly role, similar to her own mother's. Native Americans in the book are referred to as "redskins," and once as "Piccaninny warriors." There's a little bit of real violence in the story, and much more threatened violence. Native Americans smoke a peace pipe. Captain Hook smokes cigars. Peter Pan has been adapted for stage, TV, and film, including the entertaining but similarly problematic 1953 Disney version .

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (9)
• Kids say (13)

Based on 9 parent reviews

One of the best J.M Barrie Books

Inappropriate for a modern audience, what's the story.

In J.M. Barrie's PETER PAN, Peter flies through the window of the Darling nursery in search of his shadow. He meets Wendy, Michael, and John, teaches them to fly, and leads them to the home of the Lost Boys in Neverland so that Wendy can be all of the boys' new mother. There, among pirates, Native Americans, mermaids, and wild animals, the children have exciting adventures. However, Captain Hook and his band of pirates are determined to wipe out the Lost Boys, especially the cocky Peter Pan. Hook plans to kidnap the boys and Wendy, poison Peter, and make the boys walk the plank while Wendy watches. It will take equal parts magic and courage for the Darling children to make their escape and find their way back home to London.

Is It Any Good?

This classic fantasy is full of thrilling adventures that spark children's imaginations, but some of the attitudes and language in J.M. Barrie's masterpiece are dated and offensive. Peter Pan is richly complex, inspiring moments of humor, pity, sadness, excitement, and fear. Another fascinating aspect of this novel is the fact that the author occasionally breaks the "fourth wall" by inserting himself into the story. For example, he writes of trying to decide whether to let Mrs. Darling know in a dream that her children are on their way home. This aspect of the book -- along with the archaic ideas and language about gender roles and indigenous people -- make the novel a great subject for home or classroom discussion, as well as an exciting and magical childhood fantasy.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how Peter Pan sparks the imagination. Do you wish you could fly? Do you wish you could have adventures like the Darling children and fight with pirates?

Have you seen the Disney movie of Peter Pan ? How are the book and the movie different from each other?

What do you think about the way Native Americans are shown and discussed in the book?

In this book, what does it mean to be a mother? Would you like to have a mother like Wendy or Mrs. Darling?

Book Details

• Author : J.M. Barrie
• Genre : Fantasy
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Adventures , Brothers and Sisters , Pirates
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : HarperFestival
• Publication date : December 27, 1904
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 9 - 12
• Number of pages : 240
• Available on : Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
• Last updated : January 8, 2021

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

Black Beauty

Little Women

Mary Poppins

Classic books for kids, fairy tales for kids, related topics.

• Magic and Fantasy
• Brothers and Sisters

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Advertisement

Supported by

Hook, Brine and Tinker

• Share full article

By Sam Swope

• Dec. 3, 2006

Before James M. Barrie wrote “Peter Pan,” he was a successful novelist and playwright, unhappily married and childless. In one of the more famous chance encounters in literary history, he met the Llewellyn Davies family in a London park, and over the years spent hours at a stretch with the five young sons, acting out adventures involving pirates, Indians, fairies and a character called Peter Pan.

Close observation of his young friends helped shape Peter Pan, but the character was probably most profoundly inspired by a childhood tragedy. When Barrie was 6, his older brother died in a skating accident, and the loss nearly destroyed his mother. Her youngest surviving son struggled to be so like his brother that his mother “should not see the difference.” But as Barrie grew older, his brother, like all children who die, stayed the same age, a boy who never grew up.

Most of us know “Peter Pan” from the Broadway or Disney adaptations. Both are remarkably faithful to Barrie’s play, which opened in 1904 and was an immediate and enduring success, the most famous play for children ever written. Less well known is Barrie’s wonderful novel version of the story, which was published seven years later. What distinguishes the novel from the play is its wry, wistful narrator, a grown-up who stands at a remove from Peter yet is in total sympathy with him, so the story is told simultaneously from an adult’s and a child’s perspective.

This fall brings a prequel and a sequel to “Peter Pan.” These are forms purists greet with scorn, and they bedevil the reviewer, too. They demand comparison with the original, and if the original is a masterpiece, the successors will almost certainly be found wanting, making it harder to assess what the new books have actually accomplished.

“Peter Pan in Scarlet,” the first “official” sequel to the original — having been commissioned by the children’s hospital that owns the rights — comes with the greater literary pedigree. It’s written by Geraldine McCaughrean, who is highly regarded in England and not nearly well enough known here. She’s won the Whitbread Children’s Book Award three times, once for a brilliant novel, “Not the End of the World,” which tells the story of Noah’s ark.

McCaughrean shares Barrie’s vivid, intelligent and dark imagination, but she lacks his madcap whimsy, and her “Peter Pan in Scarlet” has a corresponding sobriety. The sequel takes its cue from the last chapter of Barrie’s novel, in which we learn that the Lost Boys, now adopted, “saw what goats they had been not to remain on the island; but it was too late now, and soon they settled down to being as ordinary as you or me.”Inevitably, Barrie tells us, they stopped believing and lost the power to fly.

As McCaughrean’s story opens, Barrie’s child characters, now grown, are having nightmares about Neverland. Fearing something’s amiss, they decide to return. Only children can fly, however, so what’s a grown-up to do? McCaughrean tells us: “When you put on dressing-up clothes, you become someone else. So it follows that if you put on the clothes of your own children, you become their age again.” She dodges the question of how the clothes fit, writing, “All I can say is that there was ... magic at work, and somehow all the hooks did up and all the buttons fastened.”

It’s odd the clothes must belong to one’s own children — I was aggrieved for Slightly (one of the Lost Boys), who would be left behind because he was childless. Except guess what? McCaughrean dreams up another way to become a child again. Slightly simply “went down to the foot of the bed. ... You can end up anywhere if you dare to go right down to the bottom!”

These solutions don’t convince, but never mind: off the reunited crew flies to Neverland, where they discover a bored Peter Pan on a polluted island. After they come upon the abandoned Jolly Roger, Peter finds Hook’s scarlet coat and puts it on. Because of the “you become what you wear” rule, he starts to become Hook.

Meanwhile, Hook himself has survived the crocodile’s stomach, but its bile “frizzled” him to wool, turning Hook into a kind of giant talking cardigan. Apparently, Hook tricked Peter into becoming Hook because only Peter-as-Hook could uncover his treasure chest — the contents of which reveal the disappointing news that Hook became a pirate not for sheer love of villainy but because of a traumatic childhood.

McCaughrean brings back Tinker Bell as well as the pirate Smee and also manages to fit in a circus, a fairy war, an attack by Redskin pirates, shrieking witches and desperate mothers who sail to Neverland in prams, looking for their lost boys. It’s quite a jumble.

The author says of her Neverland, “Dreams leaked out through the holes; grown-up mess leaked in.” Grown-up mess, indeed. The gifted McCaughrean has this time given us a muddled, slightly sour narrative, told primarily from an adult perspective. Barrie’s Neverland belonged to Peter’s imagination; as such, he was the hero. McCaughrean’s Peter isn’t in control, but a victim needing rescue.

Like McCaughrean, Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson play with elements from Barrie’s novel in “Peter and the Shadow Thieves,” the second book of a planned trilogy, which began with their blockbuster “Peter and the Starcatchers.” But it’s obvious that Barry, a Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist, and Pearson, a best-selling novelist, had a grand time spinning this yarn, about the evil Lord Ombra, who steals people’s shadows, turning his victims into obedient zombies. Their fantasy, however, is also radically different from Barrie’s, which sprang from a vision of life, while Barry and Pearson are writing pure adventure — not that there’s anything wrong with that.

But it’s a sign of the times that the authors have softened Barrie’s rapscallion and turned the mythic Peter into a sweet, thoughtful boy with a fundamentally different soul. As Barry and Pearson tell it, exposure to “starstuff” made Pan unable to grow up, which is quite a different thing than refusing to, and not at all rebelliously heroic.

That said, Barry and Pearson know how to write a page turner, and should the real Peter Pan ever go to the bother of learning to read, he’s sure to like their tale.

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

Salman Rushdie’s new memoir, “Knife,” addresses the attack that maimed him  in 2022, and pays tribute to his wife who saw him through .

Recent books by Allen Bratton, Daniel Lefferts and Garrard Conley depict gay Christian characters not usually seen in queer literature.

What can fiction tell us about the apocalypse? The writer Ayana Mathis finds unexpected hope in novels of crisis by Ling Ma, Jenny Offill and Jesmyn Ward .

At 28, the poet Tayi Tibble has been hailed as the funny, fresh and immensely skilled voice of a generation in Māori writing .

Amid a surge in book bans, the most challenged books in the United States in 2023 continued to focus on the experiences of L.G.B.T.Q. people or explore themes of race.

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

Books: A true story

Book reviews and some (mostly funny) true stories of my life.

Book Review: Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

April 18, 2013 By Jessica Filed Under: Book Review 13 Comments

Peter Pan, the book based on J.M. Barrie's famous play, is filled with unforgettable characters: Peter Pan, the boy who would not grow up; the fairy, Tinker Bell; the evil pirate, Captain Hook; and the three children--Wendy, John, and Michael--who fly off with Peter Pan to Neverland, where they meet Indians and pirates and a crocodile that ticks.

Right away I fell in love with the writing.  It was fascinating with it’s deep thoughts one minute, biting sarcasm the next and some very amusing honesty.  It’s visual, easy to imagine and I could tell that it was a play first before this novelization came out.  And the voice was just bursting with personality.  A charming example:

If she was too fond of her rubbishy children she couldn’t help it. – J. M. Barrie, Peter and Wendy (p. 131)

The whole story is this beautiful blend of imagination and reality.  I was a little surprised at how similar the plot was to the Disney version.  Disney usually chops those stories up until you can barely recognize them.  Although the plot is technically the same, the book had a slightly darker tone than the Disney version.  And I had to smile at the few unexpected Shakespeare references.

A theme that kept popping up was that children are carefree, innocent, and happy yet heartless.  In a way they can’t leave the bad qualities behind without growing up and losing the good ones, too.  The fact that Wendy stays away so long is because all children are completely confident that they can do whatever they want and they will still be loved.  They are cocky in a way, like Peter.  Another thing I found kind of shocking was the casual way in which they talked about killing on Neverland like it was some sort of game. Another example of heartless children.  I also found it interesting that most of their make-believe games in Neverland were pretending to do adult things in an innocent and unexperienced way.  It’s a harsh truth of childhood that they really can’t tell the difference between reality and imagination.  Peter has nightmares that trouble him a lot mostly because they feel real to him.  What struck me the most was how brutally honest this book was about childhood.  As adults, we tend to forget all the bad things we’ve grown out of and glorify all the good things we miss.  It’s bittersweet to look at childhood the way it really is because not all of it is pretty.

Tinker Bell’s character was quite saucy, naughty and highly entertaining.  She mostly swore which I found kind of funny.

Overall, it was a beautifully written story about childhood so full of personality that it truly captured my imagination.

Content Rating : Mild , for some swearing. (Mostly the word a** coming from Tinker Bell occasionally).

About J. M. Barrie

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM (9 May 1860 – 19 June 1937) was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys who inspired him in writing about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens (included in The Little White Bird), then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a "fairy play" about this ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland. This play quickly overshadowed his previous work and although he continued to write successfully, it became his best-known work, credited with popularising the name Wendy, which was very uncommon previously. Barrie unofficially adopted the Davies boys following the deaths of their parents. Before his death, he gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital, which continues to benefit from them.

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

• eBook Challenge 2013

April 18, 2013 at 1:14 pm

Interesting! I’ve always meant to read Peter Pan, just never got around to it yet. Sounds like Disney definitely tweaked Tinker Bell :)

April 18, 2013 at 9:03 pm

Oh you should read it! It was delightful. Disney tweaked her a little – she’s still raving jealous, just has less of a mouth on her lol.

April 19, 2013 at 9:52 am

I read this several years ago and was struck by how unDisney some of it was – like the killing (as you mentioned). The author didn’t sugar coat the whimsical and sometimes cruel nature of children.

April 19, 2013 at 2:19 pm

I know right? I was expecting much more sugar coating, but his honesty was much much better :)

April 19, 2013 at 10:26 am

I’ve always wanted to read this book because I have enjoyed the movie’s so much. I’m sure I will enjoy it now. :) Jen

You would! If you love the movie, you definitely need to read it :) I’m a huge fan of the movie too.

April 19, 2013 at 6:11 pm

Tinkerbell swears? I’ve loved every screen version of Peter Pan (yes, even the cheesy ones, even Hook) that I’ve seen. one of these days I need to read the original. especially if there is goofy swearing.

April 19, 2013 at 7:56 pm

Yes! The only thing she practically ever says through the book is “You silly ass.” I mean it’s not bad swearing, but still….hilarious. Did you ever watch that movie play version where Peter Pan is a grown woman? And I think it’s a musical ?? I used to watch that one growing up. Loved Hook too!

April 20, 2013 at 7:45 am

I thought it was funny that Tink was jealous and I like it when she was swearing. I also agree about the killing: they made it look so easy and normal.

April 20, 2013 at 7:48 am

Tink was the best :)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

email subscription

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

Book Review

• J.M. Barrie
• Coming-of-Age , Fantasy

Readability Age Range

• Originally it was published by Hodder and Stoughton. The version reviewed was published by Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.

Year Published

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

English children Wendy, John and Michael Darling live with their parents and their nurse, a dog named Nana. One night before the parents go out for the evening, Father gets angry and sends Nana outside. Since Nana is not in the room standing guard, a boy named Peter Pan and his fairy friend, Tinker Bell, fly through the nursery window.

Wendy wakes up, and Peter tells her about a place called Neverland. It is his home, a magical island where he can remain a child forever. John and Michael wake up, too, and Peter blows fairy dust on all of them so they can fly.

The Darling children accompany Peter to Neverland. Wendy agrees to be a mother to Peter and his band of lost boys. (These are boys who fell out of their prams when their nurses weren’t looking and, when unclaimed, were taken far away.)

At the jealous Tinker Bell’s suggestion, the lost boys inadvertently shoot Wendy with an arrow when she first approaches the island. She recovers quickly, and the Darling children enjoy life in Neverland. Wendy disciplines and cares for the boys, who often play in a lagoon surrounded by mermaids. The boys live underground for fear of pirates.

Although the boys consider Peter their father, he prefers to think of himself as Wendy’s son like the others. The cocky, adventurous boy wants nothing to do with growing up. He is oblivious to Tinker Bell’s and Wendy’s romantic affections for him.

Captain Hook is the cruel leader of the pirates. He hates Peter, who once severed Hook’s hand and flung it to a crocodile. The creature liked the hand so much, he continues to stalk Hook in hopes of devouring the rest of him. Hook also hates Peter for his cockiness.

When two of Hook’s men try to leave Indian princess Tiger Lily on Marooner’s Rock to drown, Peter impersonates Hook’s voice and persuades the pirates to set her free. This act earns him favor and worship from Tiger Lily’s tribe. He and Wendy get stuck on the rock, and Peter saves Wendy by attaching her to a kite. The Never bird, who cares for her young on the water, allows Peter to float to safety in her nest.

Wendy tells the boys stories of her mother so she and her brothers won’t forget Mrs. Darling and her kindness. Peter interjects that Wendy is wrong about mothers. His own, he says, forgot all about him and barred his window so he could not return.

Wendy and her brothers realize they don’t want to be forgotten, and Wendy decides they must go home immediately. The lost boys are upset by the idea, but Peter feigns indifference. Wendy invites all the boys home with them, saying her parents will adopt them. All but Peter agree to go.

Hook and his men attack the Indians in an effort to smoke out Peter Pan. Hook finds Peter sleeping alone and poisons the medicine Wendy asked him to take. The pirates capture Wendy and the lost boys and prepare to make the boys walk the plank.

Peter wakes up and decides to take his medicine. Tinker Bell warns him it’s been poisoned, but he doesn’t believe her. She takes it herself, nearly dying in an effort to save him. Tinker Bell is revived when enough children around the world express their belief in fairies. She and Peter sneak onto the ship, kill many pirates and save Wendy and the boys. Hook goes overboard, and the crocodile eats him.

Wendy and the boys leave Neverland. Peter and Tinker Bell secretly fly ahead of them to the Darling house. Peter plans to shut the window so Wendy will think her mother no longer wants her. He hopes this will make her return to Neverland. When Peter sees the extent of Mrs. Darling’s grief, he unbars the windows and flies away.

Wendy, John and Michael are happily reunited with their parents, who also agree to adopt the lost boys. The children all grow up. Wendy returns to Neverland periodically to help Peter with spring cleaning. As years pass, her daughter and granddaughter do the same.

Christian Beliefs

Other belief systems.

The Indian tribe calls Peter the “Great White Father” and prostrate themselves before him.

Authority Roles

The proud George Darling is overly concerned about others’ opinions. He’s particularly embarrassed to have a dog for a nanny and takes his anger out on Nana. He later demonstrates his regret for his behavior by staying in her kennel during the children’s absence.

The motherly Mrs. Darling dances around with the children, tells stories and sorts through their thoughts while they sleep. She’s eager to adopt the lost boys. Captain Hook treats his men like dogs and sometimes kills them for minor offenses. Peter says his own mother barred his window and forgot all about him after he was gone. He returned to find another boy asleep in his bed.

Profanity & Violence

Tinker Bell repeatedly calls Peter a “silly a–.” Pirates, Indians and Peter’s gang engage in many battles that result in fatalities. None of the violence is graphically depicted.

Sexual Content

Wendy gives Peter a kiss. Fairies climb over Peter on their way home from an orgy. (Note: An orgy at this writing meant a wild party or celebration, and didn’t imply a sexually unrestrained social gathering.)

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

Native Americans: Members of Neverland’s Native American tribe, named the Piccaninnies, are also called redskins or savages.

“To be completely human — with its full range of both practical and imaginative potentialities — and to grow up; these are in a sense contradictories. By growing up, by co-operating in social order . . . one has to curtail the imagination; by doing this one is obliged to give up so much that one becomes an unacceptably diminished person.” –J.M. Barrie on growing up and the inspiration for_ Peter Pan.

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

Latest Book Reviews

The Minor Miracle: The Amazing Adventures of Noah Minor

The Eyes and the Impossible

Castle Reef 2: Bloodlines

Compass and Blade

Nothing Else But Miracles

Weekly reviews straight to your inbox.

• ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

by J.M. Barrie & illustrated by Scott Gustafson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1991

An unusually large, attractive, unabridged edition with dozens of full-page illustrations and smaller vignettes. In style, Gustafson's lusty oil paintings of the pirates are akin to N. C. Wyeth's, though they have more the flavor of compelling dramatic play than real menace. His slim, round-faced, rosy children and cozy interiors are closer to Wyeth's gifted student, Jessie Wilcox Smith, while the ethereal yet mischievous fairy folk recall Rackham. This is not to suggest that the result is merely derivative, in the manner of Michael Hague; Gustafson is a talented craftsman who skillfully melds his references to past greats to create an appropriately traditional style that has enough of a contemporary aura (especially in the characterizations) for broad popular appeal. An endpaper map of ``The Neverland'' and meticulous renditions of intriguing details add to the drama and fun. A perfect gift for a family that reads aloud. (Fiction. 5+)

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1991

ISBN: 0-670-84180-3

Page Count: 184

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1991

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

Share your opinion of this book

More by J.M. Barrie

BOOK REVIEW

by J.M. Barrie illustrated by Eulalie developed by FrogDogMedia LLC

More About This Book

BOOK TO SCREEN

TALES FOR VERY PICKY EATERS

by Josh Schneider & illustrated by Josh Schneider ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2011

Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)

Pub Date: May 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011

More by Josh Schneider

by Josh Schneider ; illustrated by Josh Schneider

ABIYOYO RETURNS

by Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs & illustrated by Michael Hays ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2001

The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-689-83271-0

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001

More by Pete Seeger

by Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs & illustrated by R. Gregory Christie

by Pete Seeger & Paul Dubois Jacobs & illustrated by Michael Hays

adapted by Pete Seeger & illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin

• Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
• News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
• Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
• Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
• Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
• More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
• About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Popular in this Genre

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

• Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Contact us: 1-800-316-9361 or email [email protected].

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

Peter Pan, by J.M Barrie | Book Review

Book Review of  Peter Pan The Children’s Book Review

Written by J.M. Barrie

Ages: 8+ | 154 Pages

Publisher: Sky Publishing | ISBN-13: 9789916987032

What to Expect: Fantasy, Adventure, Classics, and Friendship

J.M. Barrie’s  Peter Pan  has stood the test of time as a whimsical and enchanting tale, weaving together the innocence of childhood with the allure of perpetual youth. The narrative follows the Darling children—Wendy, Michael, and John—whose lives take an extraordinary turn when the mischievous Peter Pan whisks them away to the fantastical island of Neverland, where Peter is the leader of the Lost Boys, a group of orphaned boys who, like Peter Pan himself, do not want to grow up. What ensues is a captivating adventure filled with mermaids, Native Americans, pirates, and a memorable tick-tocking crocodile.

One cannot help but marvel at Barrie’s ability to transport readers to a world where imagination knows no bounds. The addition of flying adds a layer of magic that echoes the unfettered joy of childhood dreams. It has been said that when the story was first created, Peter and the Lost Boys could fly without fairy dust, but after a few reports of children hurting themselves attempting to fly from their beds, J.M. Barrie wrote in the necessary step of using fairy dust.

This edition of  Peter Pan  treats readers to 13 original, first-edition illustrations by the legendary artist F. D. Bedford. These illustrations complement the narrative and serve as a visual feast, bringing the characters and landscapes of Neverland to life, making this edition a delightful addition to any collection. The inclusion of a quiz at the end of the book adds an interactive element, engaging readers in a fun and educational manner. This thoughtful touch caters to both children and adults, inviting them to revisit the story’s intricacies and test their knowledge of the beloved characters.

In conclusion, J.M. Barrie’s  Peter Pan  remains a timeless masterpiece, and this edition, with its exquisite illustrations, interactive features, and careful design, pays homage to the enduring charm of the story. As readers take flight into the pages of Neverland, they are sure to experience the same sense of wonder and delight that has captivated audiences for generations.  Peter Pan  is not just a story; it is an invitation to embrace the boundless magic of imagination and the eternal spirit of childhood.

Buy the Book

About the author.

Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860–1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright best known as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several successful novels and plays. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired him to write about a baby boy who has fascinating adventures in Kensington Gardens, then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, a 1904 West End “fairy play” about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland. In 1911, Barrie developed the Peter Pan play into the novel Peter and Wendy.

What to Read Next if You Love Peter Pan

• Peter and the Starcatchers , by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
• The Wizard of Oz , by L. Frank Baum
• Treasure Island , by Robert Louis Stevenson  
• Alices’s Adventures in Wonderland , by Lewis Carroll

Bianca Schulze reviewed  Peter Pan . Discover more books like  Peter Pan  by reading our reviews and articles tagged with Fantasy , Adventure , Classics , and Friendship .

• X (Twitter)

Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.

Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

J.M. Barrie

Ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The story begins in the nursery of Darling home, where Mrs. Darling is "sorting through her children’s minds" at bedtime. She is surprised to find that all the children have been thinking of someone named Peter Pan . When Mrs. Darling asks about this mysterious boy, Wendy explains that Peter sometimes visits them when they’re asleep. One night, when she is resting in the nursery, Mrs. Darling wakes up to find that Peter Pan has indeed come to visit. When Peter notices an adult in the room, he jumps out the window, but the children's canine nanny, Nana , traps his shadow inside the room.

A few nights later, when the Darlings are dressing for a party, Mr. Darling quarrels slightly with the children and ties Nana in the yard, to everyone’s dismay. When the Darling parents leave for the party, the children are left unguarded, and Peter and Tinker Bell fly into the nursery. They are looking for Peter’s shadow, which Mrs. Darling had hidden away in a drawer. When Tink gives Peter the shadow, Peter finds that he can’t get it to stay on. His bitter crying wakes Wendy, who quickly sews the shadow on for him. Peter confesses that he has been listening in on the children’s bedtime stories so that he could repeat them to the lost boys. He asks Wendy to come with him to Neverland, where she could go on adventures and be a mother to all the little boys. Wendy hesitates, but finally agrees. Peter teaches all three Darling children how to fly and they set off to Neverland.

After flying for several days and nights, they finally spot the island on the horizon. The island seems dark and dangerous. Pirates who also inhabit the island fire a gun at the group and everyone flies in different directions. Tinker Bell, who is jealous of Peter and Wendy’s new friendship, uses the opportunity to try and get rid of Wendy: she tells the lost boys to shoot Wendy, and Wendy almost dies. But soon everything is well: Peter returns, and Wendy agrees to be the boys’ mother. She cooks and cleans and mends clothes, and she has a wonderful time with it. The boys all love to have regular mealtimes and bedtimes, like regular little boys. Peter takes them on many wonderful adventures.

One night, Wendy is telling the boys their favorite bedtime story: it describes three children who flew away to Neverland, and who returned many years later to find their mother and father waiting for them with open arms. Peter doesn’t like the story: he reluctantly explains that his own mother did not wait for him. Wendy becomes very upset and decides to take John and Michael home immediately. She invites all the boys to come, but Peter coldly declines.

As it happens, the pirates are waiting just above the children’s underground house. When Wendy and the rest come out, they are all captured and taken to the pirate ship. Meanwhile, Peter is lying in bed asleep. Captain Hook , the leader of the pirates, slips down into the lost boys' house and poisons Peter’s medicine. When Peter wakes up, Tinker Bell tries to warn him about the poison, but he doesn’t believe her; at the last moment, she drinks the medicine herself. She grows weaker and weaker, but she is saved by the sound of children clapping all around the world. When she is well again, Peter sets out to save the others.

Hook and his crew have returned to the ship. They are about to make the children walk the plank, when suddenly they hear the ticking of the crocodile – the same crocodile that has been trying to eat Hook. The children see that it is Peter who is ticking, not the crocodile. Peter slips onto the ship, and in the ensuing confusion he and the children kill most of the pirates. When only Hook is left, Peter fences with him and finally throws him to the crocodile waiting in the water.

Soon, the Darling children come home to London. Mr. and Mrs. Darling are overjoyed, and they adopt all the lost boys except Peter, who returns to Neverland. Peter promises to take Wendy back to Neverland every year to do his spring cleaning, but he comes for her only twice.

Wendy and the other boys grow up. The boys get ordinary jobs, and Wendy marries and has a daughter named Jane . One day, Peter returns: he wants to take Wendy to do his spring cleaning, but she is too big to fly, so he takes Jane instead. When Jane grows up, he comes every so often for Jane’s daughter, and so on forever.

67 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-13

Chapters 14-17

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

Summary and Study Guide

Author James Matthew Barrie adapted his 1904 play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up to novel in 1911 with the hit Wendy and Peter , known today simply as the timeless classic Peter Pan . The mischievous character Peter Pan first appeared in Barrie's 1902 novel The Little White Bird and later in the 1906 novel Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens . Barrie's works explore themes of coming-of-age, the importance of imagination, the clash of fantasy and reality, the power of maternal love, and more. Since its debut, Peter Pan has captured the adoration of children and adults alike.

Plot Summary

Get access to this full Study Guide and much more!

• 7,500+ In-Depth Study Guides
• 4,900+ Quick-Read Plot Summaries
• Downloadable PDFs

Mr. and Mrs. Darling worry about money before they have three children: Wendy, John, and Michael. In an effort to save money, they hire a dog to be their nanny. One night, a flying boy tries to come into the house. The dog, Nana, is able to shut the window before the boy can make it inside. However, the window cuts the boy’s shadow off, which Mrs. Darling folds and puts away in a drawer. Despite their fear that the boy will return, Mr. Darling ties Nana up outside, and he and Mrs. Darling head to a party. The same night they go to the party, the boy returns with his fairy, Tinker Bell. They scour the nursery and find the boy’s shadow.

However, the boy is not able to reattach his shadow. He sits down on Wendy’s bed and cries. When she wakes up, she asks him what is wrong, and he shows her that he can’t attach his shadow. She sews it back on for him. The boy tells Wendy his name is Peter Pan. When Wendy finds out Peter wants someone to tell stories for him and his friends, she convinces him to take her with him. They wake her brothers and all of them fly off into the night. Before they arrive on the island, they are separated in the sky. Tinker Bell convinces Peter’s friends, the lost boys , to shoot Wendy out of the sky.

The SuperSummary difference

• 8x more resources than SparkNotes and CliffsNotes combined
• Study Guides you won ' t find anywhere else
• 100+ new titles every month

The boys are devastated when they learn that they’ve shot their new mother, and they nurse her back to health and build her a home. Through various adventures, the lost boys, Peter, and Wendy face the pirates and their Captain, Hook. All the while, Peter insists that all mothers are bad, except Wendy. Wendy takes care of Peter and the lost boys: feeding them, teaching them, and nursing them. Sometimes the line between real and make-believe is blurred.

One night, Wendy tells the story she tells often. Peter, who normally doesn’t listen, sits and watches. The story is about her parents and how they keep the window open always, waiting for their children to return. The others are fascinated and ask Wendy when the children will return. She decides at that moment that they should return home that night. Peter pretends he doesn’t care and tells them they can go.

Up above their subterranean home, Captain Hook and his pirates await. They capture Wendy and the others when they emerge to leave. Tinker Bell wakes Peter and tells him what has happened. He vows that he will save them and it will be either him or Hook this time. On Captain Hook’s ship, he saves the others, and kills Captain Hook. The lost boys return home with Wendy and her brothers.

Wendy tries to convince Peter to stay with her and the others, but he insists he never wants to grow up. Instead, they agree Peter will come each spring to bring Wendy to the Neverland so she can clean. After a couple of visits, Peter forgets to come for Wendy and she grows up. However, when he arrives again to find her grown up, he takes her daughter. And so it continues.

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now

Related Titles

By J. M. Barrie

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

J. M. Barrie

The Admirable Crichton

The Little White Bird

Featured Collections

Action & Adventure

View Collection

Action & Adventure Reads (Middle Grade)

Childhood & Youth

Children's & Teen Books Made into Movies

Juvenile Literature

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan

Analysis of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 29, 2020 • ( 0 )

The secret of Peter Pan seems to be that it is not merely a children’s entertainment but a great play in its own right, a memorable theatrical experience, differing only in the nature of its appeal to the adult playgoer or to the child. And so it seems worth studying, not only for its remarkable stage history, but also as a piece of great literature: its background as a story as well as its foreground as a play. Like the other great stories of its kind, it was told first to a particular child or a group of children—but like them also it was invented to please the author and drew from the unsuspected depths of his memory and of his own deepest personality.

—Roger Lancelyn Green, Fifty Years of Peter Pan

James M. Barrie wrote several plays for adults, the best known of which are The Admirable Crichton (1902), Quality Street (1902), What Every Woman Knows (1908), and Dear Brutus (1917), as well as the theatrical version of his most celebrated novel, The Little Minister (1897). Barrie’s works for the stage were popular in their day, and some were later filmed (with varying degrees of success), but by the 1930s his plays had begun to seem less like the charming pastiches they were and more as quaint relics of middle-class Victorian and Edwardian sentimental sensibilities, lacking the intellectual and sociological heft of works by such contemporaries as George Bernard Shaw. Barrie’s plays are infrequently revived now. Only Peter Pan , the first important play written for children and in many ways the most sentimental of Barrie’s work, has continued to enchant both children and adults in numerous dramatic and musical stage, film, and television productions. Peter Pan has attained the status of what one critic has called a “legendary creation,” and the play and its central character have survived to confer upon Barrie and his “Boy Who Would Not Grow up” (the play’s subtitle) a reputation similar to that of Lewis Carroll and his Alice. Barrie’s particular Wonderland, which he called Neverland, with its pirates, Lost Boys, Indians, lagoons, and dueling captains, Hook and Peter Pan, has continued to work its magic on audiences not only because it is a world embodied in productions that are entertaining spectacles but also because this adventurous, storybook milieu is juxtaposed with a sweet idealization of family life and the tenderness and pain of parenthood to speak to a sense of childhood lost. In 1929 the Boston Transcript characterized Peter Pan’ s appeal as an adult, as well as a children’s, play: “It is middle age’s own tragicomedy—the faint, far memories of boyhood and girlhood blown back in the bright breeze of Barrie’s imagination.”

Actress Betty Bronson (center) stars in the silent film Peter Pan (1924)

The inspiration for Peter Pan grew out of several singular experiences in Barrie’s life, as well as from his imagination. The ninth of 10 children in a family that lived in one small cottage, James Matthew Barrie was born on May 9, 1860, in Kirriemuir, Scotland. His father, David, was a handloom weaver; his mother, Margaret Ogilvy, the daughter of a stonemason, was known by her maiden name, according to Scottish tradition. She was the strongest influence on her third son, who would later produce a series of popular newspaper articles about her, as well as a titular biography, published in 1896, a year after her death. Although David Barrie had been poorly educated, he was hardworking, ambitious, and determined that his children should have every opportunity to receive an education. With careful planning the Barries were able to send their children to private schools and to college. Barrie’s eldest brother, Alexander, eventually became a bursar at Aberdeen University and one of the first of Her Majesty’s Inspector of Schools, and four of Barrie’s five sisters to survive childhood were schoolteachers before they married.

During his childhood Barrie played with a friend’s toy theater and acted out improvised dramas in the family’s little brick washhouse, a building he later identified as the original of the little house the Lost Boys build for Wendy in Peter Pan. He enjoyed Penny Dreadfuls—penny-a-number magazines featuring sensational fiction in serialized form—although when he later read a condemnation of this class of fiction in the morally conscientious children’s magazine Chatterbox , he buried his supply of them in a field. A turning point in Barrie’s life came at the age of seven, when his 14-year-old brother, David, a brilliant boy and his mother’s favorite, died in a skating accident while attending a private school run by Alexander Barrie. Margaret Ogilvy was inconsolable over the loss and became, in Barrie’s words, “delicate from that hour.” Young James attempted to take the place of his elder brother and spent much time in his mother’s room listening to her reminisce about her childhood. Margaret Ogilvy’s mother had died young, and the eight-year-old Margaret had been, as Barrie later wrote, “mistress of the house and mother to her little brother.” The young Margaret would become Barrie’s first model for Wendy Darling, the girl who mothered Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. At the same time, in Margaret Ogilvy’s memory, the dead son, David, was always the golden child who never grew up. The idea of youth frozen in time would inspire Barrie years later in the creation of Peter Pan. Mother and son also read together, beginning with Robinson Crusoe and continuing with other adventure stories, including the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper, as well as R. M. Ballantyne’s The Coral Island , a tale of shipwrecked sailors and pirates. When the supply of books at the local library and bookshop was exhausted Barrie began writing his own adventure tales to entertain his mother.

At 13 Barrie was sent to Dumfries Academy, where he joined a make-believe pirate crew of boys and founded a school dramatic society. He wrote and produced an original drama, “Bandelero the Bandit” (1877), the style of which was based on the Penny Dreadfuls and Cooper stories he had read. The production caused a minor controversy when a local clergy-man denounced the piece as “grossly immoral,” a pronouncement that only served to bring welcome publicity to the drama society. At 17 Barrie left Dumfries Academy determined to become a writer, but his parents insisted he attend university and become a minister, as David would have done had he lived. With the help of his brother Alexander a family compromise was reached whereby James would study literature at Edinburgh University. Shy and self-conscious about his short stature of five feet, two inches, Barrie was unhappy during his first few terms at Edinburgh, but he eventually found a welcome niche as a freelance drama critic for a local newspaper. After graduating with an M.A. in 1883 Barrie wrote for the Nottingham Journal for a time and then went to London to try to earn a living as a freelance writer. His first popular success was with a series of semi-fictionalized articles of life in Kirriemuir, later collected in three volumes, Auld Licht Idylls (1888), A Window in Thrums (1889), and The Little Minister (1891). Barrie’s first commercially successful play was Walker, London, a comedy produced in 1892. In the cast was a young actress, Mary Ansell, whom Barrie married in 1894. The marriage was a childless and unhappy one, and the couple eventually divorced in 1909.

The spark that would result in the creation of Peter Pan was kindled by the friendships Barrie developed with various children, most notably the five sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, whom he had met while walking his St. Bernard (the prototype for the nursemaid character of Nana in the play) in Kensington Gardens. Barrie, with his flair for playacting and storytelling, became a great favorite of the boys, especially after the death of their father in 1907. Barrie’s close relationship with the Llewellyn Davies boys has led to questions of inappropriateness, but as his biographer Andrew Birkin has pointed out, Barrie was “a lover of childhood, but was not in any sexual sense the pedophile that some have claimed him to have been.” He was certainly, in his platonic way, in love with Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, the daughter of the writer George du Maurier and the sister of actor Gerald du Maurier, who would play the first Mr. Darling and Captain Hook in Peter Pan. When Sylvia died in 1910, Barrie became the boys’ guardian.

In 1902 Barrie published The Little White Bird, a novel that chronicles his growing friendship with the oldest Llewellyn Davies boy, George, in the character of David, the son of a penniless young couple. Barrie appears in the novel as Captain W, a lonely bachelor who plays the anonymous fairy godfather to the couple. Most important, the novel introduces the figure of Peter Pan, named for George’s baby brother, Peter. The character is featured in a story within the story and concerns a baby who flies out of its nursery to the island of the birds. When Peter returns home he finds the window barred against him and another baby in his place. Wendy also makes her first appearance in the novel, as Maisie, a little girl who stays in Kensington Gardens at night to watch Peter Pan and the fairies at play. Despite her temptation to live on the island with Peter she returns to her mother. At around this time the pirate games Barrie and the Llewellyn Davies boys played at the Barries’ country home, Black Lake Cottage, resulted in a self-published book, The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island, which featured photographs of the boys. Barrie, in his introduction to the first published version of Peter Pan in 1928, dedicates the play “To The Five,” and credits the Black Lake games he played with the boys for inspiring the work: “I suppose I always knew that I made Peter by rubbing the five of you violently together, as savages with two sticks producing a flame. That is all he is, the spark I got from you.”

Barrie was inspired to work on a fairy play of his own after taking the boys to see Bluebell in Fairyland, a work written and performed by Seymour Hicks (another future Mr. Darling/Hook). Although not very successful as art, the piece was an innovation in that it was an original play for children rather than an adaptation of a book or a pantomime (a comic spectacle with songs and speeches taken from fairy tales and nursery rhymes). In November 1903 Barrie began the first draft of what he initially titled “Anon, A Play.” After several changes and refinements (which continued up to the play’s opening and even in subsequent productions while Barrie was alive), Barrie took Peter Pan to actor-producer Herbert Beerbohm Tree, whom he visualized as Captain Hook. Tree disliked the play and told Barrie’s manager and backer, the American impresario Charles Frohman: “Barrie must be mad. He’s written four acts all about fairies, children, and Indians running through the most incoherent story you ever listened to; and what do you suppose? The last act is to be set on top of trees!” Tree would later say ruefully that he would probably be known to posterity as the producer who had refused Peter Pan. Certainly when the play opened on December 27, 1904, it was a spectacle of theatrical trickery, with stage flight attempted for the first time, as well as a variety of other special effects and elaborate scenery and staging. Peter Pan was an instant success in London and in New York, where it was produced in 1905 with Maude Adams in the title role.

The story of Peter Pan: Or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up concerns the titular motherless, half-magical boy, who, the audience learns, has frequently peered into the night nursery of the Darlings in Bloomsbury to watch the family life within. During one visit he has left his shadow behind; when Mr. and Mrs. Darling go out for the evening he comes back with his fairy friend, Tinker Bell, to retrieve it. The Darling daughter, Wendy, awakens and sews the shadow on for him. Despite the warning barks of the dog nursemaid, Nana (whom Mr. Darling had sent to the doghouse over the protestations of his wife), who fears the influence of the boy at the window, Peter teaches Wendy and her brothers, Michael and John, to fly and takes them to the Neverland, where Wendy becomes the mother of the Lost Boys who live underground and in the hollow trunks of trees. (Peter: “They are the children who fall out of their prams when the nurse is looking the other way. If they are not claimed in seven days they are sent far away to the Neverland. I’m captain.”) The children have adventures with Indians and pirates, the latter of which is led by dastardly Captain Hook, named for the steel hook he wears in place of the right hand that was bitten off by a crocodile, who, as Hook explains, “liked my arm so much . . . that he has followed me ever since . . . licking his lips for the rest of me.” There is a war between the pirates and the children, during which Hook and his men capture Wendy and the boys and imprison them on the pirate ship. Hook tries to poison Peter, but Tinker Bell drinks the draught and nearly dies. To save her Peter appeals to the audience to clap their hands if they believe in fairies. As the audience applauds, Tinker Bell’s light grows bright again, and Peter rushes off to save Wendy and the boys. The pirates walk the plank, the crocodile dispatches Hook, and the Darling children return home to their sorrowing parents. Mr. and Mrs. Darling adopt the Lost Boys, but Peter refuses to stay: “I don’t want to go to school and learn solemn things. No one is going to catch me, lady, and make me a man. I want always to be a little boy and to have fun.” Realizing that Peter “does so need a mother,” Wendy convinces her mother to allow her to go to Peter each year for spring-cleaning at the little house the Lost Boys built for her that now nestles in the treetops. In a coda to Peter Pan, titled “An Afterthought,” first presented in 1908 and featured as an extra chapter, “When Wendy Grew Up,” in the 1911 novel, Peter and Wendy, the adult Wendy sadly realizes she can no longer go with Peter and instead sends her daughter Jane with him to do the spring-cleaning. For his part Peter has forgotten the adventures he has had with Wendy: for him there is neither a past nor a future, only the joy of the present moment.

Barrie’s genius in creating Peter Pan was to synthesize the fairy tale and the adventure tale—the two basic elements of popular children’s literature— into a single work that uses the entire space of the stage to create an exciting, but ultimately benevolent, fantasy world juxtaposed with the safe and secure world of the family. The emotional and psychological conflicts within the play, sensed by children and understood by adults, concern the struggle for possession of Wendy as a mother, a daughter, and a spouse (Wendy and Peter play mother and father to the boys) and the contradictory human desire to be both free from responsibility and part of a family and society. Peter Pan speaks to these truths, even as it joyously captures the elemental child in each of us.

Share this:

Categories: Drama Criticism , Literature

Tags: Analysis of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan , Bibliography of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan , Character Study of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan , Criticism of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan , Essays of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan , J. M. Barrie , J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan , Literary Criticism , Notes of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan , Peter Pan Analysis , Peter Pan Criticism , Peter Pan Essay , Peter Pan Guide , Peter Pan Lecture , Peter Pan PDF , Peter Pan Summary , Peter Pan Themes , Peter Pan: Or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up , Plot of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan , Simple Analysis of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan , Study Guides of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan , Summary of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan , Synopsis of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan , Themes of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan

Related Articles

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Peter Pan by J M Barrie - review

I absolutely loved this book! J. M. Barrie has created a load of funny and unique characters. Before I start the review I would like to say this fantastic, funny book is nothing like the Disney film! Thanks, now to begin…

When, One night, a strange boy flies into the Darling's nursery, the three children - Wendy, John and Michael- can't resist going with him but when they arrive in Neverland they trigger a series of adventures and thrills.

Hook is a dangerous pirate desperate to pay the cocky Peter Pan back for the many pirates he has taken with his knife but Peter has friends to help him, such as the Indians and the lost boys. Hook does have his deadly pirate crew but that may not be enough now that the Darling children have arrived. It goes straight to deadly battle.

Who will win this time? Will the children want to go back and grow up?

Read this classic to find out!

Want to tell the world about a book you've read? Join the site and send us your review!</

• Children's books
• Children and teenagers
• Children's books: 8-12 years
• children's user reviews

Most viewed

The Book Nook Chronicles

All Things Bookish; All the Time

Book Review: Peter Pan

Erica’s experience.

Title: Peter Pan

Author: J.M. Barrie (Illustrated by F.D. Bedford)

Genre: Children’s Lit/Classic

Page Count: 191

Publication Date: My copy was published in 2014; the story was originally a play released in 1904 that became a novel in 1911

The delays continue as life keeps getting busier. I’ll be starting a new job in July, but had to put my two weeks in with my old one first. My fiance and I also had the joy of hosting some friends and family over the last two weekends in our new home, so I’ve been unable to take my free time to read. July should (hopefully) go smoother. Without further ado, please enjoy.

As I read more classics throughout my journey with this blog, I’ve found that there are two branches of the genre. Classics that stand the test of time and classics that don’t. Unfortunately, Barrie’s Peter Pan falls into the don’t category.

Ironically, or maybe intentionally, the adults really ruin this story. My interpretation of the novel might be skewed by Disney’s 1953 cartoon adaptation of the story which completely eliminates Mr. and Mrs. Darling from the storyline and simply focuses on the children.

Mr. Darling is a haughty, self-absorbed, upper middle-class man that seems to learn nothing over the course of the book. If anything saves him, it’s the way Barrie writes the about him. There’s a level of snark and sarcasm that oozes through the chapters highlighting Mr. Darling that make me believe Barrie didn’t have much respect for this character either. Mrs. Darling is very obsolete until the second-to-last chapter of the book. She’s very seen but not heard– and in a way Wendy is the same, even though she’s the second most important character in the novel.

In the end, I found Peter Pan to really highlight how children are simply mimicking what adults teach them. For example, the only reason Peter wants Wendy around is so that she can do his spring cleaning and be a mother to himself and his fellow Lost Boys. He doesn’t see her as an equal but revels in the novelty of her. I can’t say that Peter respects Wendy, but there is a clear admiration for her seeing as she’s the only girl in Neverland for most of the book.

And don’t get me started on the femme fatale character, Tinker Bell. She is the embodiment of stereotypical overly emotional and jealous woman. The evident love triangle between herself, Wendy, and Peter is every bit as creepy and nonsensical as it sounds.

Barrie expresses that girls are seen as smarter and maybe better than the boys in Neverland, but in the end Wendy is forgotten by Peter and replaced by her daughter, Jane. Jane is then replaced by her daughter, Margaret and so on. All of them are only seen and never heard.

Peter Pan has a magical quality to it but as a woman that hopes to be a mother in the future, I don’t see a need– or even a want– to read this story to my hypothetical kids. The only thing it teaches kids that is worth knowing is to always believe in fairies.

You can purchase Peter Pan here if you are interested in reading. I will be reviewing Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for the month of July, which you can purchase here if you’d like to read along. The review will be up July 25th. Stay tuned for this month’s florilegium, coming out this Sunday, July 4th.

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Published by E. Nolan

View all posts by E. Nolan

Leave a comment Cancel reply

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

Peter Pan by JM Barrie – Book Review

Introduction: peter pan by jm barrie, why peter pan by jm barrie matters today.

Peter Pan by JM Barrie and similar stories matter today, more than ever. We do not take enough time to dream, and step into the world of make believe because we are too busy. Peter Pan allows us to think that we can make the impossible possible. Michael, John and Wendy Darling tried to fly and they kept at it until they became good at it.

We can conceive and believe something, but until we take action, nothing will become of our idea. The book also highlights the fundamental differences between adults and children.

What is  Peter Pan by JM Barrie About?

The children's drama Peter Pan by James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937) was first presented on the London stage in 1904, and then in the form of a novel in 1911. Sir James Matthew Barrie got his inspiration to write Peter Pan from five little boys – Nico, Jack, Peter, George, and Michael – of the Llewelyn Davies family. According to the Encyclopedia of World Biography:

“Barrie never wanted to face the pain and unhappiness of the adult world. Thus much of his writing is emotionally sentimental as well as thematically autobiographical.” (Vol. 2. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2004. p21-22).

Have you read?

Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper, Review

The Story: Peter Pan by JM Barrie

Peter Pan  by JM Barrie (Sir James Matthew Barrie) is a whimsical, magical story where children can fly, dogs can be nannies. Parents have the ability to scan their children’s mind while they are sleeping to learn what they are up to.

“It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for the next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can’t) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers.”

Peter Pan  is a story of making the impossible possible by believing and taking action. The story of Peter Pan is so ridiculous that you cannot help but enjoy it.

Mrs Darling loves to tell her three children, Wendy, John and Michael bedtime stories before they go to sleep. Without her knowledge, Peter Pan listens to the stories and returns to Neverland where he tells the stories to the lost boys – boys taken away from their parents.

One night while Peter Pan is leaving the children’s nursery, Nana, the dog who is the children’s nanny, catches Peter Pan’s shadow in its mouth. Mrs Darling examines the shadow and decides to roll it up and place in a drawer. At nights the children often dream of the magical island, Neverland, so they know about it.

After one incident, Mr Darling banishes Nana to stay outside in the kennel because he wants to let everyone know that he is master of his own home, but that decision comes to haunt him for a while.

One night, Peter Pan returns for his shadow while the three children are sleeping in the nursery, and unfortunately Nana is locked outside the home. Peter Pan is with the fairy Tinkerbell. They find Peter’s shadow, but he cannot stick it back on and starts to cry.

The crying awakes Wendy, and of course she wants to know why he is crying. She sews back on Peter’s shadow. There is a lot of exchange going on between Wendy and Peter, and Tinkerbell is quite jealous. Peter uses chicanery to get Wendy to leave with him. Which child wouldn’t want to see mermaids, learn to fly and all the things that fairy tales are made of. Meanwhile, Nana is very suspicious and starts to bark. She ultimately breaks free and goes to the house where Mr and Mrs Darling are at a party. They sense danger and go with Nana, but alas they are too late and the kids are gone.

Mr and Mrs Darling are devastated and cannot be consoled. The children are flying to Neverland which is far away. It’s very tiring, and they are sleepy, but how can you sleep while flying. When they fall asleep, they start to fall, and Peter often waits until the absolute last moment to save them. To him it’s quite funny to watch. They are hungry, and he teaches them to steal food out of the beaks of birds. Quite often it is a futile attempt.

Because of her jealousy, Tinkerbell wants to get rid of Wendy. When the three Darling children arrive at Neverland, Wendy’s role is changed to that of mother. Very soon Michael and John start to forget about their parents, but Wendy constantly reminds them by telling stories and sets examinations papers on it. Wendy is confident that their parents will welcome them back with open arms, and she takes comfort in knowing that.

As the story unfolds, we learn about Execution Dock, Captain Henry Hook and his crew. There is a rivalry between Peter Pan and Captain Hook who lost his hand because of Peter Pan. Peter cut off Captain Hook’s right arm and fed it to a crocodile who now thirsts for the villain’s blood. Captain Cook is a bully, and like most bullies, he is a coward.

Peter Pan is childlike and wants to remain that way forever – he doesn’t ever want to grow up. Peter is also a “show-off” who makes the children and the lost boys dependent of him. It’s quite funny when they have pretend meals. They are hungry, however at meal times, they do not always have actual food, so they pretend that they are eating a meal.

Captain hook captures everyone except Peter Pan and intends to kill them. You see team work in action when they help Peter to finally vanquish his archenemy Captain Hook. The Darling children say they want to go home, and the lost boys return with them. Peter Pan doesn’t want to live with the Darlings or any other family because that means that he has to grow up, which he doesn’t want to do.

Back home, Mr and Mrs Darling are saddened by the disappearance of their children. Mr Darling pays penance by living in Nana’s kennel because he didn’t listen to the dog’s pleas. When the children return, the parents make room for the extra boys because they are so glad to see their children. The following year Peter Pan returns and wants to take Wendy once again, but Mrs Darling is having none of it. They come to an agreement that for one week each spring, Wendy can return to Neverland and do some spring cleaning for Peter.

Time is very different for Peter, and he returns infrequently, until he shows up when Wendy is grown and married. By that time Peter Pan is no longer important to her. Wendy tells the Neverland story to her daughter Jane. One spring when Peter Pan returns, because his concept of time is so different, he doesn’t realize that Wendy is a grown woman and he asks for Michael and John. Wendy tells Peter Pan that the child sleeping is a new one, and she tells him that she is a grown woman. Peter Pan is distraught because he didn’t want Wendy to grow up.

Peter Pan teaches Jane to fly, and the same deal is made that each spring, Jane will go to Neverland for a week to spring clean. This was the first time I read Peter Pan and what I liked most about the story is the magic of believing that you can do the impossible. Peter Pan convinced Michael, John and Wendy that they could fly. They believed they could fly and tried to fly until they mastered it. A big part was taking action.

Conclusion: Peter Pan by JM Barrie

I recommend Peter Pan  by JM Barrie because every now and again we need to step into the land of make believe. Have you read Peter Pan by JM Barrie?

JM Barrie Books

About the Author  Avil Beckford

Hello there! I am Avil Beckford, the founder of The Invisible Mentor. I am also a published author, writer, expert interviewer host of The One Problem Podcast and MoreReads Success Blueprint, a movement to help participants learn in-demand skills for future jobs. Sign-up for MoreReads: Blueprint to Change the World today! In the meantime, Please support me by buying my e-books Visit My Shop , and thank you for connecting with me on LinkedIn , Facebook , Twitter and Pinterest !

Enjoyed this article?

Find more great content here:

How I Lost 170 Million Dollars by Noah Kagan, Summary

Teach yourself how to learn by saundra yancy mcguire, summary, the hobbit by jrr tolkien, book summary.

Lara's Wanderings

Book Review: Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

If the only form of this novel you have been exposed to is movies, you may think that this book is about a boy named Peter Pan who never grows up and is a celebration of perpetual childhood. This would be incorrect. The novel “Peter Pan” by J.M. Barrie is about Wendy, the Darling children, and the lost boys all choosing, on their own… without an adult, to grow up.

This may come as a surprise to my readers. Hardly anything I have read about this book brings their choice to grow up out as the main theme, but it is as clear as it can be.

The book starts with Mr. Darling wanting Wendy to move out of the nursery and grow up. This wish is contradicted by everyone in the family. We then get introduced to Peter Pan, a sprite-like embodiment of perpetual childhood, both the good and bad. The children are all whisked away on an adventure into the world of childhood play. Peter is fun, intriguing, and exciting, but also forgetful, chaotic, and neglectful. The adventures are exhilarating, but all the children, including the lost boys, long for a mother.

Mrs. Darling and the image of motherhood portrayed in this novel embodies comfort, safety, stability, and order. Mr. Darling goes from making harsh demands to being over-the-top remorseful, but Mrs. Darling always speaks sense and maintains a quiet vigil for her children. This is an extension of who she is while they are home as well, as we see through Wendy’s imitation of her. The “mother” is the link to adulthood that the children use to pull themselves out of the anarchy of unrestrained play.

If you watch the movie adaptations of this book, adulthood is pictured in the pirates, but this is not the reality of the book. The adults in Neverland are pirates because that world as a whole is the world of childhood, but the mother is, in fact, the real image of adulthood that every child chooses except Peter. Wendy gets tired of Peter’s continual neglect of her. All the children get tired of the continual games. The predictability and stability of adulthood embodied by motherhood lure the children more than the exotic Indians, mermaids, pirates, and play by the end.

So why do I say this book is not about Peter Pan? Because Peter Pan never changes. Wendy is the primary character who changes and develops. She claims to not want to grow up at the beginning of the novel, and yet she continues to try to bring adult sense and order to Peter and Neverland in her role as his mother. The reader often sees a romantic hint in her affection for Peter, but this is a grown-up emotion that Peter cannot understand. Wendy is continually traveling to her final choice to grow up throughout the story, and in the end, makes the choice to do so.

I love this book because is a celebration of the family in our modern world that sees parents as unnecessary. The children continually swing, as real children do, from wanting the security of their parents to wanting the freedom to do as they like and back again to the comfort of their mother’s arms. The story of Peter Pan encourages parents to allow children to enjoy their world of imagination without the worry that they will get “stuck” there. The book also encourages children to value and think about their parents, which is so easy to neglect in childhood. The book is a classic because it surpasses time and culture to the journey and growth that every child experiences as they progress toward maturity.

“Peter Pan” is often marketed to young children, but I actually recommend this book to teenagers who are wrestling with a world that won’t let them grow up. Our modern culture tries to convince us to be children forever and to see growing up as a sad ending to the most important time of our life. This is the way the Peter Pan movies all end, but the novel is different. In the book, each phase of life is what it is and savored. We are told what the children become as adults, and we are not supposed to mourn their loss of childhood. We are not to celebrate it either. We are only asked to accept it as the way things are. I believe this is something that young adults who are leaving childhood need to hear: It is good to choose to grow up.

Click Here to Try Speechify. The #1 Text-to-Speach reader!

Share this:, one response to “book review: peter pan by j.m. barrie”.

[…] Peter. It was a great success both in London and in New York City, where it opened in 1905 with the American actress Maude Adams portraying Peter. Barrie later expanded and adapted the play into the novel Peter and […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

Book Review: Peter Pan

I LOVED this book! Although it was written a long time ago by an unsuccessful playwright, J. M. Barrie perfectly captured the imagination and creativity of young children. The reason he was disliked in his time was because he never really grew out of his kid-self. Which, I think, I think is where the inspiration for Peter Pan came, “the boy who never grew up”. But anyways, Wendy and her younger brothers are born into a family that struggles financially but are obsessed with appearing rich to their wealthy neighbors… a common trend, even today. But Wendy and her brothers are whisked into a world where imagination runs wild-- the land that is hidden in all children’s minds, the one that is different for every child, Neverland. What I love about this book is the constant thread of hidden and discreet themes about humanity, ones that continue today. It also taps into a child’s world of freedom, imagination, and oppression from adults. One of the most heartbreaking chapters is at the very end, when Wendy grows up, forgets about Peter, and gets lost in the adult world. But she has a daughter, Jane, and Jane is a kid, so she can imagine and believe in Peter Pan. Naturally, Peter Pan never really hit it off in it’s time, because of the controversial thoughts, and the point of view from kids.