Like most people, I watched Disney’s Peter Pan when I was a kid. It was one of my favorite movies and when I saw this book, I immediately wanted to read it. The way Anderson related to Tinker Bell and how the fairy felt and thought was amazing, and almost like it really was Tinker Bell’s spirit, itching to tell her story. The author, Jodi Lynn Anderson, is an amazing writer and I can’t wait for more of her writing.
Set in 1902, the story takes place on the well-known island in the stars, Neverland. The narrator is Tinker Bell, a fairy who has never had a place with her own kind. She feels an attachment to Tiger Lily, the daughter of Tik Tok, the leader of her tribe. Although all fairies are mute and can only communicate with their own kind, Tinker Bell and Tiger Lily share a special bond. They are both outcasts, never fitting in.Tiger Lily was always more like a boy than a girl, always hunting and playing outside, rather than sewing and gossiping with the other women of the tribe. When she meets Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, her life and Tinker Bell’s gets flipped upside down. In the village, the Lost Boys are a thing of legend, the monsters that come out at night. There were dozens of rumors saying that they were ruthless tyrants who kill and torture people and animals. Of course, they are only a few teenage boys who spread the rumors themselves because they wish to be left alone. Both Tiger Lily and Tinker Bell quickly start to fall in love with Peter, and are accepted into the Lost Boy’s family. When Tik Tok, Tiger Lily’s father, tells her of his promise to marry her to a mean, abusive man, everything starts to fall apart. Then Wendy arrives.
I fell in love with this book because what the author writes is so imaginative and out of this world that it deserves its place in Neverland. I always wondered how Peter Pan’s life was before Wendy came, and this book told me all I needed to know and in the voice of a jealous but lovable fairy. It was so good that I desperately wanted to be there with them, swinging over trees and living in a place with magic and fantastical creatures of every kind.
Jodi Lynn Anderson makes an astounding prequel to James Barrie’s classic novel. If you’re a Peter Pan lover, then borrow this book from the library. Wonderfully written and unique, this would be a great book for any fantasy loving reader.