5 Peter Pan Retellings We Love

Jenny Kawecki

Peter Pan retellings Like every other good person ever, I’ve adored Peter Pan ever since I read Peter and Wendy. But when I stumbled across the live-action Peter Pan at the young, impressionable age of 13, I quickly discovered one very important fact: Peter Pan is hot. Weirdly hot for a permanent adolescent, in fact. What followed was a literary crush so hard I devoured every Peter Pan adaptation I came across. So if you’ve ever wanted to fly away to Never Neverland in the pages of a good book, we recommend you do it in this order:

Notes From Your Bookseller

Second Star, by Alyssa Sheinmel
If you’re harboring more of a crush on Captain Hook than Peter, than this Neverland-meets-surf-culture crossover is probably the book for you. When her parents and police give them up for dead, Wendy Darling sets out on her own to find her missing brothers. Along the way she falls in love with both Peter, reimagined as the ringleader of a gang of beach-bum runaways, and Jas (aka, Hook), Peter’s drug dealer nemesis.

Add Item to wish listWishlist Add Item to wish listAdd to List

Peter Panzerfaust Volume 1: The Great Escape

Kurtis J. Wiebe

Paperback

$14.99

This item is currently out of stock online.

Notes From Your Bookseller

Peter Panzerfaust, by Tyler Jenkins
In this graphic novelization of Barrie’s classic, Peter and the lost boys are orphans trying to navigate their way through World War II–era France, fighting all the Nazis they come across and saving the Darlings from a plane crash along the way. This series is excellent for two reasons: 1) it offers a wonderfully unique, serious take on our favorite band of brothers, and 2) the artist’s rendition of Peter’s hair is absolutely fascinating.

Add Item to wish listWishlist Add Item to wish listAdd to List

Peter and the Starcatchers (Starcatchers Series #1)

Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson

4.7

Paperback

$10.99

This item is currently out of stock online.

Notes From Your Bookseller

Peter and the Starcatchers, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
For a decidedly more kid-friendly take on Neverland, the Peter and the Starcatchers series offers a bit of backstory on how exactly Peter became an immortal, prepubescent boy living on a magical island with a giant, malicious crocodile. Plus, the off-Broadway adaptation of this series is pure theatrical gold.

Add Item to wish listWishlist Add Item to wish listAdd to List

Neverland Academy

Daelynn Quinn

Paperback

$15.99

This item is currently out of stock online.

Notes From Your Bookseller

Neverland Academy by Daelynn Quinn
Daphne’s stuck in rural Georgia, where her brothers are attending the Neverland Academy. After getting in a fight with her parents, she runs away with Finn, an ex-attendee of Neverland Academy who lives in tunnels beneath the school. While helping Finn and his gang of boys pull pranks on the increasingly abusive headmaster, Daphne realizes she’s falling for Finn. And even though we’d probably read any Peter Pan–themed book, the combo of the fun-loving Finn with the novel’s darker themes puts this one near the top of our list.

Add Item to wish listWishlist Add Item to wish listAdd to List

Tiger Lily

Jodi Lynn Anderson

Paperback

$9.99

This item is currently out of stock online.

Notes From Your Bookseller

Tiger Lily, by Jodi Lynn Anderson
In this retelling, Jodi Lynn Anderson does something amazing: she makes you want to be friends with Tiger Lily AND Tinker Bell. And admit it, you’ve always hated Tinker Bell. But as Tink narrates the story of Tiger Lily and Peter Pan, you’ll be hoping Peter just ignores little Wendy Darling. No, really. Anderson writes beautifully about Tiger Lily’s tribe, her upbringing by a warmhearted shaman, and the love story she shares with Peter long before Wendy hits the scene.
What’s your favorite Peter Pan story?

Sci-Fi/Fantasy What We Are Reading

Poured Over: Emily Wilson on Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea

Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea by Emily Wilson takes readers on a tour through the ancient world for an entertaining examination of Greek and Roman literature and their impact on our modern world. Emily joins us to talk about the joys and challenges of interpreting antiquity, the stakes of poetic form and re-translating The Odyssey with cohost Jenna Seery.

Celebra el Mes de la Herencia Hispana con libros que inspiran, emocionan y dejan recuerdos imborrables.

Este Mes de la Herencia Hispana, te invitamos a descubrir una selección de libros para adultos y chicos que destacan el talento, la creatividad y la diversidad de grandiosos escritores latinoamericanos. Son historias que entretienen, inspiran, y nos permiten acercarnos a distintas experiencias y perspectivas, mientas celebramos las aportaciones de la comunidad hispana en los Estados Unidos.

The Black Shield: A Guest Post from Wilbur L. Cooper

In The Black Shield, reporter Wilbert L. Cooper explores the complex lives of Black cops living and working in Cleveland as part of the Black Shield organization. Read on for an essay from Wilbur L. Cooper about writing The Black Shield. When I talk about The Black Shield, I often tell people that I started writing it in 2020, the year of George Floyd's murder. I do this because the book is nominally about Black cops, and in the aftermath of Floyd's murder, there was a lot of talk about diversity as a panacea for the racial problems of American policing. Some people made the argument that the hiring of more Black cops would ensure that what happened to Floyd would never happen again. And it's true, I did spend 2020 talking to experts and historians, diving into police archives and reading studies. I did a lot of real journalism stuff. But if I’m being honest, I didn't start thinking about Black cops in 2020. I've been reflecting on the conflicting promise and plight of Black cops my whole life, because I was born into a family of Black cops. I've had family members in the Cleveland police department since the end of World War II up through the Black Lives Matter Era. And so I’ve been thinking about Black cops and what they mean and what they do since I was a child watching my mother, a strong Black woman named Gayle, don a blue uniform and a silver badge. Even as a little child, I desperately wanted to know who my mother transformed into when she went out into the world with a city-issued gun in her holster. And when there have been these visceral incidents of police violence like George Floyd or Tyre Nichols, I've wondered, What my mother's role could be in an institution like that? What does that killing have to do with the work of my father, my sister, my uncle and great uncles? To answer that question, I've been having talks with my family that I never had before, tracing their journeys into policing, as well as talks with their peers and Black cops from all across the country of various generations. So while The Black Shield encapsulates my own story, it's also filled with all of their testimony. Their witnessing for you from behind the blue wall is more harrowing than what you might hear from an activist who advocates for police abolition. For the readers who are still wondering if diversity can make policing work for Black folks, you will have a lot to think about when reading my book. But The Black Shield also addresses much bigger issues of family, assimilation, survival in America, and freedom. I hope that you all will go on that journey with me.