Trina Hyman's perfectly illustrated Peter Pan
Rating:
5 / 5
I first read Barrie's tale of the boy who refuses to grow up when I was 16 (after watching Disney's movie), and I absolutely loved it. It is in every way better than any film ever made which it inspired (although Disney's version is fun to watch and the recent 2003 version is very good and most faithful to the story).
This review, however, is only to comment upon the illustrations. There are various illustrated Peter Pans; but this one is the very best. Trina Hyman's delicate, gorgeous drawings capture the characters to perfection. Peter is particularly good, looking suitably wild and beautiful, and Tinker Bell is a lovely fairy. In so many other illustrated books the characters are either over-dressed or simply grotesque, but Hyman's version of the characters are simply perfect (MUCH better than the Disney version of them!)
If you buy any illustrated Peter Pan, but this one.
Visit Neverland
Rating:
4 / 5
No disrespect to Disney intended, but the animated version of Peter Pan does not do justice to this story. I didn't read this book until I took a Children's Literature course for adults...woe to me. Peter Pan is so sweet, pure, sad, funny, and magical. It is definitely not just a children's bedtime story. I'm glad I grew up, but I wish I still had a map to Neverland so I could visit every once in a while.
A book with aspects to appeal to both kids and adults
Rating:
5 / 5
In almost a hundred years 'Peter Pan' has become a universal kiddie literature classic. Mostly basing on his personal experiences and people he knew, J.M. Barrie created a work full of subtle undertones that have been subject of deep controversies. Rather than the story of a boy who refuses to grow up, a new approach on 'Peter Pan' has been developed. One of the most interesting is the one which is based on the analysis of the three primal female characters: Wendy --and Mrs. Darling, as well--, Tinker Bell and Tiger Lily. According to experts, they represent aspect in women that Barrie found intolerable. It is largely known that Barrie had serious problems with his mother, which may have led him to use such bipolarity on motherhood in the book. While on the one hand Mrs. Darling is a loving and concerned mother, on the other, Peter's --and the lost boy's as well-- mother abandoned him -- leading him to an eternal search of a mother figure, however unconscious it is. The sexual aspect of the novel is so subtle that for many people it may be unnoticed. However, it is clear that the book deals with several taboos, being incest the most recurrent. Peter and Wendy have both a mother/son relationship, and also there is the wish of being 'lovers' --recurring to Oedipal myth. This is one of the most interesting aspect for the books --at least when it comes to an adult approach on 'Peter Pan'. According to Jacqueline Rose's 'The Case of Peter Pan, or, The Impossibility of Children's Fiction', "The sexuality which matters is both more and less explicit than this. It is sexuality in the form of its repeated disavowal, a relentless return to the question of origins and sexual difference which is focused time and again on the child". This is what makes the novel so intriguing: it is possible to read 'Peter Pan' is more than one way --and all of them are more and more interesting. When it comes to kids themselves, this book is part a fairy tale, part an adventure and a familiar ode. These aspects make 'Peter Pan' appealing to both boys and girls. The characters while archetypical --this is unnoticeable to children-- are very vivid and it is not hard for young readers become their 'friends'. At the same time, all the 'sexual' aspect of the book is so subtle that parents can't be afraid of allowing their children to read the novel. However, the unabridged 'Peter Pan' is not advisable to very young readers due to its fanciful language. When it was written in the early XX Century, that was the current language, but, nowadays some words like 'ofttimes' and 'diffidently' are not very common in a 10 year-old lexical. The narrative is told in first person, and the narrator used a lot of 'I''s which only bring the children closer to the story making it easy to feel part of the adventure --it was very smart of Barrie, because with that he makes friend with the child, and the story flows as if they were exchaging confidences. All in all, J.M. Barrie's 'Peter Pan' will always be a children's fave and it deserves its place in the Fantasy Literature canon and will amuse young --and not-so-young-- readers forever.
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