Yes, I turn to an accepted classic. I believe in it.

If you talk about Peter Pan, I either love or hate it. In my eyes, Barrie’s writing lacks the magic of his story. However. His story! It’s everything you could love about a situation that’s bad.

Think about it, what’s worse than growing up, growing up alone, and growing up alone because your parents forgot you? In theory, nothing.

Lucky Peter Pan does not face this fate, but only because he’s condemned to everlasting childhood, a blessing and a curse.

Peter suffers the blessing of eternal innocence. When he falls in love with Wendy’s storytelling, it’s because he’s found something special, a mother fill-in that he craves to have in Neverland.

Who can’t help but feel sorry for Peter, forever like a baby at heart?

I recommend reading Peter Pan in conjunction with The Little White Bird and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, but beware that there’s a chunk you’ll read more than once. There are aspects you get in those books that give this book real, meaningful depth, and yes True, there are gaping contradictions, but the combination is well worth it.