Peter Pan

"You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."

Peter Pan is so much more than it seems. It touches on themes of childhood vs. adulthood, the fear of growing up, motherhood, abandonment, memory, fairness, and acceptance.

A lot of the characters are metaphors (Peter is childhood, Hook is adulthood, the ticking crocodile is time). I think this book may be aimed more at adults than at children, as longing return to a carefree childhood is a feeling adults can relate to (whereas children are still living it). The omniscient narrator even explains that “we too have been [to Neverland]; we can still hear the sound of the surf, though we shall land no more,” now that we are adults and can no longer access the land of children's imagination.

I think this story is beautiful, but it's also a product of its time. There are some passages that I wish weren't included in the novel (most notably the Native American stereotypes), but overall this was a magical read that hit me with a wave of childhood nostalgia.