Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie – Book review

This was my first time reading children’s fiction classic Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. It’s one of the ten books in my 2024 reading challenge: the Puffin classics. Basically, I’m going to try and read them all to enrich my children’s literature knowledge. While I had a rough idea of the Peter Pan story – pirates, crocodiles, Neverland – I had no idea it was so, well, violent?

Opening sentence: All children, except one, grow up.

Expect the unexpected

First published in 1911, Peter Pan is very much of its time when it comes to the way some characters are portrayed. I did know about elements of this, mainly due to Disney adding a warning prefix to their cartoon version. Now I’ve read it, my overarching feeling is that the sexist and racist elements in the book do make for uncomfortable reading…

As mentioned, it’s also more violent than I was expecting with lots of blood and killing references and another surprise for me was that rather than being an all-round good egg, the character of Peter Pan is actually written as more of an anti-hero (Tinker Bell too, she is very mean to Wendy!):

It is humiliating to have to confess that this conceit of Peter was one of his most fascinating qualities. To put it with brutal frankness, there never was a cockier boy.

Neverland of dreams

I know children’s literature thrives on the suspension of disbelief when reading, so it was quite lovely to see so many elements I wasn’t aware of in Peter Pan – like mother’s going into your mind and having a dog as a nanny.

Occasionally in her travels through her children’s minds Mrs Darling found things she could not understand, and of these quite the most perplexing was the word Peter.

The story follows Wendy, John and Michael Darling, siblings with the aforementioned dog nanny who are taken to Neverland by Peter Pan and Tinker Bell the fairy. When there they live a life free of any restrictions from adults, fight pirates, meet the lost boys and Wendy does a lot of mothering.

Overall, Peter Pan wasn’t the book I thought it would be – this was a surprising read for me. It is written in a detailed, engaging way and while I can see how the whimsical idea of Neverland and never growing up captured children’s attention, and liked how it explored themes of mothers and the joy of childhood, gave us the girls name Wendy and concept of the Wendy house BUT – potentially unpopular opinion! – I don’t think it’s one I’ll be actively reading to my boys.

• Get your copy of Peter Pan here;
• First published 1911. This edition published 2015;
• 207 pages;
• My rating: