Peter and the Starcatchers

by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson

I’ve read a bit of Dave Barry in my time. Every so often — about once a year — I pull out a copy of his Millenium in Review (yes, that’s where I got the idea for my Year in Review) and fall off my chair laughing as I read it again. So I was fully expecting that Peter and the Starcatchers was going to be a complete tongue-in-cheek, sarcastically hilarious version of Peter Pan.

Well, not quite. It was more like the story behind Peter Pan, and it wasn’t all sarcastically hilarious. In fact, most of it was “serious” insofar as a children’s fantasy book can be. I have to admit, the whole Starcatcher thing was a little too ridiculous for me. Far-fetched, I mean. I like to think that I have a healthy ability to suspend my disbelief, but it just wasn’t working for this book. Maybe it’s because I saw (finally) Stardust recently, and for whatever reason, Peter and the Starcatchers seemed too similar. And too ridiculous.

That being said, I really enjoyed the book, despite its Starcatcher nonsense. And I even plan to read the sequel, Peter and the Shadow Thieves. I’ll let you know how it goes.