Classic Starts®: Peter Pan

“All children grow up. All except one.” When Wendy and her brothers discover a boy named Peter Pan looking for his shadow, they can’t decide what makes him more magical: the fact that he can fly, or that he never grows up! This abridged retelling is the perfect way to introduce young readers to the marvelous Neverland, jealous Tinker Bell, and menacing Captain Hook.

J. M. Barrie was born on May 9, 1860, in Kirriemuir, Scotland, the ninth of ten children. His older brother died when Barrie was only six years old, and it is said that his mother took comfort in the fact that he would “always remain a little boy,” an idea that had a great impact on Barrie. At the age of thirteen, Barrie was sent away to boarding school, where he and his friends spent their time playing pirates. When he completed his schooling, he became a journalist, first in Nottingham and then in London, before turning to writing novels and plays. Barrie’s most famous work, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, premiered on stage in 1904 and was turned into a novel in 1911.