Peter Pan in Scarlet

McCaughrean won a competition to pen this sequel to J.M. Barrie's "Peter Pan" (see Children's Bookshelf, Sept. 14). She faced prodigious challenges in continuing this classic character's storythe original book's tidy resolution and a croc-eaten Hook among them. McCaughrean's complex tale, set in 1926, finds Wendy, the "Old Boys" and John (Michael having perished in the Great War) dreaming repeatedly of Neverland, whose trappings (an eye patch, a live crocodile, etc.) keep turning up nearby. Wendy knows something's amiss, and she and the men set out to catch a fairy in Kensington Gardens (for its flight-inducing dust) and to grow small enough to make a return visit. In one of the book's most charming aspects, the group, having regained childhood and reunited with Peter Pan, loses sight of their mission: "The grown-ups who had set out from London full of good intentions, clean forgot why they had come." Neverland is now autumnal and sere, with its lagoon poisoned and fairy legions warring mindlessly; and a mysterious gent named Ravello, shrouded in unraveling wool, has turned the beasts into circus performers. An adventure aboard the abandoned "Jolly Roger" culminates in the League of Pan's rescue by Ravello, who flatters Pan into accepting him as valet for their next questto Neverpeak's summit for Hook's hidden treasure. Pan's resulting transformation may stretch some readers' credulity, and this sequel is more densely plotted than the original. But McCaughrean's story, with its picaresque descriptions, faithfully rekindled characters and an ending that leaves room for sequels, will keep the pages turning. What's missing, and surely impossible to recapturelike Mrs. Darling's one elusive kiss, gone to Peteris Barrie's rueful, ambivalent, ennui-infused omniscient narrative voice, which made itself nearly as irresistible as Pan himself. All ages. "(Oct.)"

Copyright 2006 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

In this sequel to J. M. Barries "Peter and Wendy" (first published in 1911), the grown-up Lost Boys suffer from bad dreams leaking out of Neverland that result in cutlasses, pistols, pirate eye-patches, and other things appearing under their pillows. After a living crocodile shows up in the Gentlemans Club of the former Lost Boys, Wendy realizes that something is very wrong and that they must return to Neverland. In order to become young again, they wear their own childrens clothes and obtain fairy dust for flying, and set off to heal it. However, when they reunite with Peter Pan, they forget their original mission and become caught up in the wild joys of his imaginative adventures. After they find Captain Hooks abandoned boat with a map to hidden treasure, Peter Pan dons Hooks second-best suit of scarlet and takes command of the ship. The League is accompanied by Fireflyer, an impudent, ravenous fairy with an astounding capacity for telling lies, and Ravello, a charming but ominous circus man who seems to be made entirely of snarled bits of yarn. As they travel closer to Neverpeak, where the treasure allegedly is buried, the menaces surrounding their quest escalate to the point where the League members become unsure of one anothers true nature and loyalty. McCaughrean captures the excitement of the original story without the overly precious Victorian glorification of childhood. Wendy and the former Lost Boys are developed characters (with a welcome surprise of a gender-change thats believable within the scope of the story). Even Peter Pan, who struggles to remain as brash and carefree as he ever was, is not immune to change and consequences. Pen-and-ink illustrations add to the enjoyment of the story."Farida S. Dowler, Mercer Island Library, WA"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.