A Peter Pan Re-Telling Better Than the Original

In 1783 Wendy Darling was a foundling placed at the door of a London almshouse. As a child, she read The Live and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,and ever after longed to sail the seven seas and experience all the magical wonders of the world. Mortimer Black, another orphan, knew the ways of the world and told Wendy, “Girls can’t be in the navy. Girls take care of babies!”

Shortly after hearing this bleak news Wendy met her mentor, Olaudah Equiano, a former slave, plantation manager, scientist, and sea captain. He promised to teach Wendy how to make fresh water from the sea, navigate by the stars, and fashion a mast from a tree trunk. Over the next six years Equiano also taught Wendy how to repair a sail and fire muskets and cannons. Whenever Mr. Equiano was in London he taught Wendy and her best friend Charlie all about navigation, shipbuilding, marksmanship and sword play.

In 1789, when Wendy and Charlie reached sixteen years, they were old enough to be sold into service. Wendy had no desire to be a maid, millinery, or dressmaker. So when they learned that the Home Office (something like Homeland Security) was accepting female applicants, the duo jumped at the opportunity. Wendy was assigned to a castle in Dover and Charlie to a vessel at sea.

Thus begins Erin Michelle Sky and Steven Brown’s imaginative novel, The Wendy. It’s a re-telling of J.M. Barrie’s novel, Peter Pan, but written for an adult audience. In Sky and Brown’s novel Wendy is a young adult when she meets the magical outlaw, Peter Pan and his crew, the everlost. Wendy soon learns that Peter is unlike most men she knows because he respects her gender without putting limits on her capabilities.

All of Barrie’s characters—John, Michael, Nana, Captain Hook, and even Tinker Bell—make their appearance in this well crafted novel. The authors tell the story like Barrie, in the third person omniscient voice with a plot that won’t disappoint.

At the end of the book, Wendy is reunited with Charlie giving him navigational orders, “Second to the right, and straight on ‘til morning.” It appears we’ll be heading for Neatherland in book two.

About the Authors

Erin Michelle Sky was inspired to become a writer from reading Ann McCaffrey’s series, Dragon Riders of Pern. She and co-author Steven Brown are known as the Dragon Authors due to their science fiction and fantasy novels for teens and adults.

Steven Brown also enjoyed reading as a child and acted out the books he read with his brothers. You can find both authors on their website at DragonAuthors.com.

 

Pop’s Rating: