Peter and the Starcatchers

Cape Cod Weather Today: Beautiful. Sunny, already 66 degrees, and the pool is turquoise blue and ready to swim in. If the water was warmer. Ha! I'll bet the kids are in it before too long...

I just read Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. Started it yesterday while waiting for my son's band lesson to be over, and finished it this morning with my coffee. What a great story! I'd bought it for the boys years ago, but personally I couldn't get past the Dave Barry thing. I mean, he was always one of my favorite columnists, but I didn't see how that would translate into a book for younger readers. And yet... it works. Really well.

For those who may not have heard of this when it came out a few years ago (2004, Disney Hyperion Books), it's the story of how Peter Pan got his powers, how he met and made enemies with the infamous Captain Hook, and how the island of "Neverland" came to be. In the acknowledgments, the authors thank Pearson's daughter for asking "how a flying boy met a certain pirate." Leave it to a child to come up with the idea for a great kids' book.

I've always loved Peter Pan - I think we saw it the Disney version at the drive-in with my parents on a summer night long ago - long enough in my past that I'm pretty certain my sisters and I were all in our pajamas with our pillows in the back of the convertible to go to the drive-in theatre, for first the kids movie and then the feature presentation (where my parents expected the three of us to bed down in the backseat and fall asleep.) When my oldest son was four, my mother-in-law took him to see Peter Pan onstage in Chatham, and for the next year he was on the lookout for pirates and flying boys.

I don't want to give away any of the plot points, but if you like the Peter Pan story and ever wondered how he learned to fly.... read this book. It's quick, it's well-written, and it's fun.

This would make a great live-action adventure movie. I hope someone has optioned it. Also, I hope in making it they figure out how to make the mermaids believable, because that would help pave the way in people's minds for MY mermaid tale of adventure. (LOL - but not really kidding) I have seen the previews for the new animated Tinkerbelle movie, which gives a whole different background story for the fairies... so maybe they won't be filming this book.

But they should.