It wasn't a pick I expected to make. It wasn't in the original list of potentials for The Great Book Adventure. In fact, I never even considered delving into children's literature. Nevertheless, when my hand drifted to Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie I didn't second guess the instinct. All good adventures should have some spontaneity after all.
I think part of the reason I reached for Peter came as a reaction to having spent a month mired in Dickens' Bleak House (Parts One, Two, and Three). As books go, it was a pretty serious one, both from a plot and a reading perspective. By comparison, Peter is about a tenth of the length and was written for children. As for adventure criteria, it certainly has name recognition. The original play has been produced countless times at all levels, and movies like the Disney version and Hook have kept it in the public consciousness for generations. What most of those productions seem to have glossed over, however, is the darkness. There is an ever so faint shadow which hangs around the character and story. It's a slightly sinister feeling which makes only flickering appearances, at least early on. Its existence, I suppose, is only appropriate since it's a shadow that gets the whole story rolling in the first place.
If you know Peter Pan at all, you know he loses his shadow in Wendy, John and Michael's nursery and that that is what brings them to introductions. What you may not know, especially if you're like me and have only seen the movies, is that when Peter sits crying over his limp shadow, Barrie has already set him up as a character just this side of trustworthy. Just before Peter quite literally bursts onto the scene, Mrs. Darling is having a dream. She has already heard her children talk about Peter, though they haven't met him, and the narrator tells us "in her dream he had rent the film that obscures the Neverland." Right as she wakes up, the window blows open, Peter flies in and "gnashed [his teeth] at her."
Article comments
1 - booktrailers
What an interesting way to get people interested in reading! Book trailers are like movie trailers, but for books! You can find them all over the internet now, but here is a site that's featuring them on YouTube.
This is a great way to promote reading to young, technically savvy adults and teens. This is a great opportunity for authors and the book publishing industry to reach out and show that books are fun!
2 - Evan
im reading the books Peter Pan