Peter Pan: Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

maybe it's just the childlike nostalgia within me, but i'm physically unable to rate this any less than five stars.

J.M Barrie’s Peter Pan is nothing like Disney’s adaptation. So some sections of the story appeared weird to me when seeing them in Disney character form rather than the ones they were written as. Especially with the conflict between Hook and Pan.Peter Pan himself is portrayed completely differently to his Disney counterpart. His actions are something a Disney character would never do, which is great. This book wasn’t written solely for Disney. Pan here is shown as a person who only listens to himself rather than the goofy, dumb, and childish version Disney presents him as. His actions of locking the Darling children in, in order to keep them from following him shows this. However, this source material transports the reader into the Darling children’s journey to Neverland. In particular it highlights Wendy’s fear of growing up into someone with a whole heap of responsibilities. Whether the adventure was something the Darling daughter made up is up to the reader to decide, but the idea of Wendy having one last adventure to wish her childhood goodbye is a heartbreaking idea. Alongside this, numerous scenes in this book can be left up to the reader’s imagination: the reason for Peter Pan’s existence, did Pan have a connection to the Darling children, and why did the lost boys choose to go the neverland? None of these are answered in a believable way.The 150 page length felt like the book was going on forever. I am yet to decide if this is a good or bad this, but I am happy that I read this book. It’s my favourite version of the Peter Pan tale despite sections of the book being poorly aged in the modern day. If someone was to delve deeper into the story behind Peter Pan, I reccomend watching Finding Neverland. Whether it is the broadway or film versions it a grew look into who J.M Barrie was. (I reccomend the broadway version.)