Book Review: The Bridge to Never Land

The Bridge to Never Land
by  Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Date Read:  11/27/2012
Rating:  ★ ★ ★ ★

Hmmm, this book ended with the hint that there will be another book. Will there? I hope so. As long as they keep writing this series, I will keep reading the books. I sure enjoy them.

This book introduces us to brand new characters, Sarah and Aidan Cooper. They are in the modern era. Sarah has read all the Starcatchers books (which I think was such a neat idea). She and her brother find a weird piece of paper hidden in a secret compartment in their father's desk. So naturally they try to figure out what it is. As they dig deeper, Sarah starts to make connections to the Starcatchers books and begins to wonder if the books are all true.

A thing that I really enjoyed was how Sarah would actually read sections out of the previous Starcatcher books. I thought it was a neat way to remind readers about certain critical moments, but at the same time, doesn't feel like I'm being reminded.

Sarah and Aidan are very likable characters. I really enjoyed their adventure. The story progressed very quickly. There wasn't much time spent on stupid, slow information. It was constantly moving, which kept me very engaged. Then, they met J.D. Aster. I really liked him too. All of the new characters were well developed and likeable.

Naturally, the book is called "Bride to Neverland" so they have to track down this bridge, because an evil villain is after them, and starstuff. Eventually we get to see a few of our beloved characters from the origianl series. It was just enough to still make this story about the other characters, but you get that glimpse, a small taste, of the old characters. I absolutely loved it. It is fun to see what they have been up to after such a long time.

We get a lot of different perspectives in this book. Even from the minor characters who really don't mean anything. It was like reading a movie. I got to see everything that was going on - even though I didn't really care much about any of those characters. And the Disney references were awesome. I have always loved Disneyland. I haven't been to the Magic Kingdom as often, but it was still awesome, because I knew exactly what he'd been talking about.

I really liked the ending. [SPOILER: I liked how Peter was able to defeat Ombra, but I also liked that he had promised to come back soon, even though Tink warned him that there was still evil here, that Ombra probably isn't dead again. And then in the last chapter, you see that Peter has been coming back, but that there is still the threat that Ombra is coming back - and Peter is ready to take him on again if he needs to. Which makes me think that perhaps we will get another book at some point]

I hope we get another book in the near future. Like I said, if they keep writing, I will keep reading. This series is really good - seems like it stays pretty true (with new spins) to the original Peter Pan, but has all the Disney references also, which makes reading these so much fun. Everytime I read these books, it makes me want to watch the Disney Peter Pan movie...but it's still in the vault. So I'm super excited that it will finally be coming out in Spring 2013!! I can finally get my Peter Pan fix!

If you've enjoyed the other books in this series, you should definitely read this - even though it doesn't focus on Peter.