Peter Pan

This is a review of the audio book. 

Author: J. M. Barrie

Reader: Jim Dale

Producer: Random House

Production Year: 2006

Most of the listeners will be: 2nd through 5th grade boys and girls. 

Listener's Advisory: For more on Peter, listen to Peter and the Starcatchers written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, and also read by Jim Dale. 

Summary: 

Wendy, John, and Michael Darling are lured out of their window and away to Neverland by Peter Pan, who wants Wendy to be mother to him and his band of Lost Boys. In Neverland the boys have adventures all day long and Wendy tells them stories at night and tucks them into bed. When the Darling children decide it is time to go home, and take all the Lost Boys with them, Peter sulks in his underground home. But he soon learns that Captain Hook has captured his friends and he vows to save them. 

My favorite passage:

The narrator repeatedly calls the children selfish and heartless because they have left without any care for how their parents must feel and they are sure the window will always be open so that they can return at their leisure. Every time this came up, I found myself thinking back to the Darlings getting ready to go out, and how Michael especially hugged his mother and told her how fond he was of her. It was hard, at times, to see Michael forget his parents and think Wendy was his real mother. 

What I really think:

This is another classic that I obviously can't take much issue with. And, once again, it has the Virginia seal of approval. After we listened to the first few chapters she said, "I hope Peter Pan teaches me how to fly." (Please, don't steal her away, Peter!)

But let's be real for a second. What is with the teeth? Repeatedly we hear that Peter still has his "first teeth." And this is supposed to be a charming quality. Really? I know his age is hard to pinpoint, but it seems to be more than 5 or 6 years old. So, the fact that he still has his baby teeth is creepy to me. Also, all the ladies want to be more to him than a mother. Being attracted to a kid with baby teeth? Double creepy. 

The Knife That Killed Me

Author: Anthony McGowan

Publisher: Definitions

Publication Year: 2008

Most of the readers will be: Late middle school and early high school boys.

Reader's advisory: For another book on school violence try Shattering Glass by Gail Giles.

Summary:
As the knife inches closer to Paul Varderman he recalls the events that have led up to this moment. In the days prior to the big fight with the kids from Temple Moor Paul is befriended by Roth, the school bully. Roth is clearly using Paul, but in some ways it is better than being abused. But Paul has also been befriended by Shane and his group of "freaks." The freaks aren't so bad, but Paul feels like an outsider to their group. There are forces pulling on Paul from many different directions when he decides to go to the fight.

My favorite passage:

I am pushed to the ground, my knees leaving hollows in the wet earth. And I want to move. Either away or towards. To do something. But I have been burned to this spot, like one of the ashy bodies cooked to stillness in Pompeii. Only my eyes can move.
But that's enough for me to see it coming.
The knife that will kill me.
It is in the hand of a boy.
The boy is blurred, but the knife is clear.
He has just taken it from the inside pocket of his blazer.
There is something strange about the way the world is moving. I can see an outline of his arm - I mean, a series of outlines - tracing the motion from his pocket. A ghost trail of outlines. And so there is no motion, just these images, each one still, each one closer to me.
He is coming to kill me.
Now would be a good time to run.
I cannot run.
I am too afraid to run.
But I don't want to die here in the gypsy field, my blood flowing into the wet earth.
I must stop this.
And there is a way.
It comes to me now.
Part of it but not all of it.
Maths. Mr McHale. A sunny afternoon, and no one listening. He tells us about Zeno's Paradox. The one with fast-running Apollo and the tortoise. If only I could remember it. but I'm not good at school. All I know about is war, battles, armies, learned from my dad, whose chief love is war.
But I have to remember, because the knife is coming. Each moment perfectly still, yet each one closer.
Motion
and
perfect
stillness.
How can that be?
Yes, I think. To reach me the knife must come half the way. That takes, say, two seconds. But first it must go half that distance. Which takes one second. And half that distance, which takes half a second. And half that distance, which takes a quarter of a second. And so it goes on. Each time halving the distance and halving the time: 2+1+1/2+1/4+1/8+1/16. The sequence is infinite. It means he can never reach me. I am safe.
And so I can leave the me there, the me now, waiting for ever for the knife, while I go back to the beginning. (pg 6-8)

What I really think:
I really enjoy all the bits about the knife. I know they aren't really the point of the book. I know the point has more to do with bullying and fighting and all that, but the knife stuff is great. You can feel the tension as the knife slowly gets closer and closer.
As for the fighting stuff, this novel is an excellent deconstruction of a boy. It is easy to stand on the outside and wonder how perfectly nice young people get involved in things like this. McGowan has demonstrated how it's not just one thing that makes a boy carry a knife. It's a whole series of events that wear him down and make him doubt himself. This would be a nice novel to read in a classroom to really get a discussion going on school violence and how students can choose better ways to deal with their problems.