Peter Pan : $b [Peter and Wendy].

It begins at a nursery window and carries us, on a second star's bearing, into one of the most beloved and quietly sorrowful fantasies ever written.

What it's about

Peter and Wendy is J. M. Barrie's full novel of Peter Pan, the wild, forgetful boy who refuses to grow up. Slipping into the Darlings' London home, he carries Wendy, John and Michael off to Neverland, an island of lost boys, mermaids, a ticking crocodile and the fearsome Captain Hook. There Wendy plays at mother and the children taste pure adventure, until the pull of home, and of growing up, begins to make itself felt.

Themes

Beneath its swordfights and fairy dust the book is a meditation on childhood and its loss, on the innocence and heartlessness of the very young, and on the bittersweet necessity of leaving Neverland behind. Barrie writes with a double vision, delighting in play while mourning that no child stays a child, and that Peter's freedom is also a kind of exile from love and memory.

Why it still matters

Peter Pan has become a permanent fixture of the imagination, but the original novel is richer, wittier and sadder than any of its adaptations. Its famous lines about faith, trust and never growing up carry a melancholy that speaks as clearly to adults as to children, which is why generations keep returning to it.

Who it's for

Families reading aloud, lovers of classic fantasy and fairy tale, and grown readers who want to feel again the mingled joy and heartbreak of childhood.