***** - Excellent
**** - Good
*** - Okay
** - Bad
* - Terrible
+ - Half-star
Peter and the Starcatchers
(The Starcatchers series, Book 1)
Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Hyperion
Fiction, YA? Fantasy
***
DESCRIPTION: In long-ago England, an orphan boy named Peter and four companions are shipped aboard a creaking old ship called the Never Land, bound for
a distant land and a life of virtual slavery. Also on board are the girl Molly, her governess, and a mysterious black trunk that seems to make strange things happen in its
vicinity. Nobody knows what's in it, but a number of people are very determined to find out... including the dread pirate captain Black Stashe, in whose hands the
trunk's contents could be extremely dangerous. Soon, Peter is caught up in a centuries-old fight over a dangerously potent magical substance called starstuff, for
which wars have been waged and civilizations have fallen. That plain black trunk may tip the balance between the Starcatchers, who try to eliminate fallen starstuff
before the wrong people get hold of it, and the Others, who want to use its power for selfish gains. The fight may also alter his own destiny forever.
REVIEW: If you hadn't guessed, this is a prequel to J. M. Barrie's classic Peter Pan, an attempt to explain how Neverland, Peter, and other elements of
the book came to be. I haven't read Barrie's book yet, so I don't know how close they were on their explanations. In any event, this isn't a bad story. There are scurvy
pirates and ratty sea-dogs and uncharted tropical islands and all. I'm just not sure it gels into its own tale very well. I was often very aware that this was a prequel,
that all this was ultimately going to have a certain outcome, wherein a place like Neverland and a hero like Peter would be left for later adventures. The many short
chapters - some barely a page long - and illustrations hint that it was intended to be read aloud, but I don't know if young children would enjoy this book as they do
Peter Pan, as so much hinges on understanding that this is a prequel. Maybe I would've liked it more had I not kept having to put it down to do other things...
or maybe the fact that I kept doing other things meant I had little compulsion to keep reading. Either way, while I didn't hate the book, I didn't enjoy it enough to
make finishing it in a timely manner a priority.
You might also enjoy:
Peter Pan (James M. Barrie, YA Fiction - Three English children follow Peter Pan to Neverland, where they never have to grow up)
Guardian Cats and the Lost Books of Alexandria (Rahma Krambo, YA Fiction - A housecat must help defend a powerful book from evil forces)
The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica (James A. Owen, YA Fiction - Soon-to-be famous fantasy authors visit the magical Archipelago of Dreams, inspiration for myth and classic tale since time immemorable)
Peter Pan (Widescreen Edition)
(2003 movie DVD)
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