Peter Pan: The Complete and Unabridged Text

Rating:
Summary: A delightful book to read - I loved it!
Review: I read this book just this year when my Language Arts teacher told us to read a book that had "good ideas". I've seen and loved the Disney version of this classic and wanted to read it. This book is so funny and enjoyable! It is about the adventure the Darling children (Wendy, John, and Michael) have when Peter Pan show up one day in their nursery room looking for his shadow. He takes them away to Neverland and they have all sorts of wonderful adventures. This is a great book for all ages! Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Book (For a While, Anyway!)
Review: I saw the Disney film before I saw this, and i thought it was good. Then I picked up the book from the library, and after completely reading it, I thought, "Disney, read this!" The book is one of the greatest pieces of literature for ADULTS. This is
not for kids. In fact, Barrie himself stated that he wrote this not for children but for Adults. In December will come a movie adaptation of the true book by PJ Hogan.
So, if you are reading this, go read the book if you
have not readit once or twice before.
Peace out

Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: I've always been into the Disney movie, but I never actually read the book until today. I'm 17, so it may be rather childish that I'm still utterly in love with this classic tale, but what are you gonna do? I ordered this book, and not only was the story great but the illustrations were beautiful. Peter Pan is most definitely my favorite fairy tale, and I reccomend this book for anyone who liked the Disney version. Sure, the movie was great, but this is just so much better. Buy it. Seriously.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic To Be Discovered
Review: Illustrated by one of today's most influential illustrators, Gustafson's Peter Pan is a delight to the eye. His painstaking illustrations bring the world of Peter, Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys to glorious full color life. A lavish edition, the pages are filled with vignettes as well as vast full color landscapes of the world we know as Neverland. This book in particular captures all of the magic and childhood whimsy we know from Peter Pan and have come to expect from gustafson. The text is broken up into chapters as was Barrie's original story, so this edition will delight a new generation looking to know the full story of Peter Pan. Expect to see Peter and Tinkerbell at their most magical, The Darling children at their most adventuresome and Hook at his most dreadful in this classic brought to life by a favorite illustrator.A+

Rating:
Summary: A Classic To Be Discovered
Review: Illustrated by one of today's most influential illustrators, Gustafson's Peter Pan is a delight to the eye. His painstaking illustrations bring the world of Peter, Tinkerbell and the Lost Boys to glorious full color life. A lavish edition, the pages are filled with vignettes as well as vast full color landscapes of the world we know as Neverland. This book in particular captures all of the magic and childhood whimsy we know from Peter Pan and have come to expect from gustafson. The text is broken up into chapters as was Barrie's original story, so this edition will delight a new generation looking to know the full story of Peter Pan. Expect to see Peter and Tinkerbell at their most magical, The Darling children at their most adventuresome and Hook at his most dreadful in this classic brought to life by a favorite illustrator.A+

Rating:
Summary: The REAL Peter Pan
Review: It doesn't surprise me particularly that the book "Peter Pan" (or, as it was originally titled, "Peter Pan and Wendy") is not read very often by children. Today kids have their Peter Pan animated movies, live action movies, television shows (of which the less said the better), musicals, stage plays, and what have you. There are a million different versions of the story out there, so it's no wonder the children feel that they don't need to read the original tale. I myself read it for the first time just now at the ancient age of 26, though I had been warned away from it many times. I knew about its more peculiar aspects (for example, that whole business involving Mrs. Darling's "kiss") so these didn't always shock or surprise me. They just weirded me out from time to time. What really did catch me unawares though was the wit in the book. This tale has its peculiarities, no question. But it also has amazing snatches of excellent writing. I just wish it had more of the latter and less of the former.

As every good schoolchild knows (or is liable to learn from Disney) Peter Pan is the boy who does not age. Living in Neverland, a kind of ageless fantasy-burg for kids, he is attended by the silly Tinkerbell, a fairy prone to continually shouting, "You silly ass". When Peter looses his shadow in the home of the Darling family, he meets Wendy for the first time. Wendy is entranced by Peter and with the promise of stories he agrees to take her and her brothers Michael and John with him to Neverland. While there, the kids encounter mermaids, pirates, Indians, and great swashbuckling adventures. They meet the Lost Boys and come face to face with the dreaded Captain Hook. But in the end everyone must grow up. Everyone, that is, but Peter Pan.

INTERESTING FACTS THEY NEVER TELL YOU ABOUT THE BOOK "PETER PAN":

1. Smee is declared to be the only Nonconformist in Hook's crew.
2. The fairies will occasionally stumble, "home from an orgy".
3. Tinker Bell is prone to wearing a negligee.
4. Hook attended private school and is said to bear a resemblance in his manner and dress to Charles II.
5. Peter Pan is an awful bore.

Readers of "Peter Pan" have to face up to several indisputable facts when perusing the tale. First of all, Peter's not that great a guy. I mean, it's a lot of fun to swoop around fighting bad guys and playing around all the time, but Peter's got a nasty streak about him. He's conceited and cruel (laughing when Wendy's brothers plunge out of the sky to their near deaths time and time again). He hates mothers as a rule and even goes so far as to try to trick Wendy into thinking her mother has forgotten her (though he repents at the last minute). He forgets anyone who loves him and is a combination of the worst aspects of all children. This isn't to say that his book doesn't make for interesting reading. I mean, it's not hard to work your way through "Peter Pan" and it has a lot of rewards. Barrie has an odd habit of sometimes getting wrapped up in his own peculiar thoughts for a moment before rushing back to the story in a hurry. The book is thoroughly English, containing such sentences as, "children at play are for ever beaching their coracles". Decipherable, but odd. If it weren't for statements like the ones about Mrs. Darling's kiss (creepy city) it would be an idea book. To my mind, it could stand a thorough editing job. As an author Barrie doesn't really seem sure as to who he's rooting for. One moment he's cruelly mocking Mrs. Darling and the next he's calling the children, "heartless" for leaving her in the first place.

No one familiar with the peculiarities of J.M. Barrie's personal life should be surprised by the book's moral. Mainly, that growing up is bad. This is the kind of moral kids like to hear and grown-ups, who idealize children in unhealthy ways, think is good. J.M. Barrie was perfectly aware of the cruelty of kids, but seemed to think it a good thing. When Wendy, her brothers, and the Lost Boys grow up it's written as a tragedy of epic proportions. For a healthier view of maturity, check out Madeline L'Engle's, "A Wind In the Door". Aside from its moral, however, "Peter Pan" is definitely a classic. It has influenced countless people around the globe for roughly a century. It has become a part of our culture and is vastly adored. I cannot love it wholly because I feel that it is a flawed novel. Nonetheless, I give credit where credit is due and say that it is one of the necessary books to read in the English language. If you have not familiarized yourself with it yet then you are denying yourself access to an important work. Lord, it isn't great, but it's well written and interesting. Few books can say as much.

Rating:
Summary: Peter Pan
Review: J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan is a haunting tale of the adventure and dreams of a boy who refused to grow up for fear he would forget how to live. Peter lives in Neverland with his fairy, Tinkerbell, and the Lost Boys. One night he visits the nursery of Wendy, Michael, and John Darling to hear Wendy's marvelous stories, and asks Wendy to come to Neverland to tell stories and be a mother to the Lost Boys. Entranced by thoughts of pirates, mermaids, and fairies, Wendy, Michael, and John embark on an amazing adventure into a world so unlike ours, leaving only an open window for their parents sleep by every night in hopes of their return. When in Neverland Wendy encounters adventures full of excitment and sorrow, but when the time comes for her to return home, she leaves behind Peter Pan with only the bittersweet memory of their time.

Rating:
Summary: More for adults than for children
Review: Peter Pan belongs to the class of children's literature that adults enjoy to read, such as The Wind in The Willows and Winnie the Pooh. In fact, I am in doubt a child would understand the basic emotion underlying this book - losing your childhood innocence, something only an adult (and the older the better) could understand. His characters are also much too complex for a child to appreciate - see, for instance, James Hook, whose only wish is to see Peter display "bad form". Barrie writes beautifully, and his first and last chapters are worth their weight in gold. Do yourself a favor - buy this book for your kids, read it for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: My Favorite Book (For a While, Anyway!)
Review: Peter Pan is currently my favorite book. This edition is especially beautiful because of the full color illustrations. The picture of the mermaids at Mermaid Lagoon is gorgeous, and the two page portrayals of the Lost Boys on the island and Peter fighting Captain Hook are also great.
This book is very different from the Disney movie. Peter Pan and Tinker Bell come one night and take Wendy Darling and her brothers John and Michael to Neverland. There they meet the Lost Boys (Toodles, Curly, Slightly, Nibs and the Twins) and of course, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee.
From then they have adventures at Mermaid Lagoon, and the Home Underground. Then Wendy gets captured, and you can read it and figure out what happens from here.
The reason I give this book four stars is because the last chapter is really sad (you feel so bad for Peter AND Wendy). I think the title of the chapter explains it all.
But despite the last (HEARTBREAKING!) chapter, you should definitely read this book, and you are so going to wish you could go to Neverland!

Rating:
Summary: Peter Pan a review by Dylan
Review: This book is not about childhood. Rather, it is about how adults (or, at least, one adult) views childhood. Anyone with children would have to laugh all the way through. The cliches are both hysterical and pathetic at the same time. It really is a book with no discernable plot; rather, it is just a collection of vignettes. I honestly believe if Disney had not made a movie of it, it would still be a rather obscure book in the USA (of course, the same can be said for the Pooh books and Mary Poppins). I am not saying it is not an enjoyable story. It is. But it should only be looked at as a cute, if some what violent, children's book. It has no message and no greater meaning as some seem people to think.