Peter and the Starcatchers and Escape from the Carnivale: A Never Land Book Book Reviews

Peter and the Starcatchers
Ever wonder how Peter Pan learned to fly or where Tinkerbell came from?  What about Neverland and Captain Hook?  Well in this retelling of a classic story, Barry and Ridley explore just that.  In this version, Peter is an ordinary orphan boy traveling to a new country with his friends (the "lost boys") on a ship called Neverland.  He meets a girl name Molly who introduces him to a world of star power.  In this world, how do people fly?  Not with fairy dust, but with starstuff, the remains of a shooting star.  With this starstuff, people not only fly, but creatures are created, like the loch ness monster.

As Molly explains the battle of the starstuff, two halves: one designed to protect it known as the Starcatchers, the other dying to use it, a pirate called Black Stache (aka Captain Hook before the hook) is after the trunk in which the starstuff is being held, a trunk leaking out this powerful dust.  A battle ensues and the group crashes onto a remote island, inhabited by a native tribe called the Mollusks.  So how does this story become the Peter Pan we know.
Here's a rundown:

• The trunk with the starstuff lands in the water turning ordinary fish into mermaids
• The crocodile already lives on the island
• Peter handles the trunk to hide it from Black Stache as such permanently altering himself as the boy who can fly and never ages
• Peter gets injured and is saved by the leader of the mermaid called Teacher thus giving him a connection with her that allows him to understand her thoughts
  
• Peter cuts off Black Stache's hand in a fight
• The orphan boys: James, Prentiss, Thomas and Tubby Ted, decide not to leave the island, thus forever becoming the Lost Boys
• The starstuff transforms a bird into a fairy that only Peter can hear and talk too.  He names this fairy Tinkerbell thus nicknaming her Tink.
• The ships sign "Neverland" crashed on the island, thus naming the island Neverland.
  

The best part, the story doesn't end there.  This is the first in a series involving the boy we know as Peter Pan.

Visit the official website at: http://www.peterandthestarcatchers.com/.  To purchase this book, visit Amazon.com by clicking here.

Escape from the Carnivale: A Never Land Book
Now there's the middle grade companion of Peter and the Starcatchers.  As Barry and Pearson were in the middle of writing the first and second books of the series, they decided to write a younger version of their tale involving Peter's friends.

In this story, a Mollusk girl name Little Scallop decides to go on adventure with her two mermaid friends Aqua and Surf.  This is adventure go south when Surf is captured by a ship.  Little Scallop seeks the help of a lost boy, James and the leader of the mermaids, Teacher to rescue Surf.  Meanwhile, Black Stache, now known as Hook due to the recently attached hook in place of his left hand, is dying to get off the island when he sees the ship and decides to seize it as his own.

The simple tale unfolds, allowing young readers to follow the characters with ease.  Readers don't have to read the previous book to understand and follow this one as it successfully stands on its own, but being able to read both does make the story that much more enjoyable.

To purchase this book, visit Amazon.com by clicking here.