My first post for my Classic Double Challenge this year! This challenge is hosted by One Librarian’s Book Reviews. My goal for this challenge was to compare the re-telling to the original and see how much was the same or different. Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson was a retelling of Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. *There are some spoilers for both of these books.*
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I found these books to be vastly different and I much preferred the original Peter Pan in this case.
Similarities
– Violence is common in the lost boys. They treat it like it has no consequences or that it’s just a game.
– There is a dark undertone in both that I found unexpected, though Tiger Lily was somewhat darker and dealt with more issues than Peter Pan (like rape and acceptance in a culture).
– They both have fairies and mermaids.
– There are pirates and tribes in both stories.
– A few details are the same like a crocodile swallowing a clock, Captain Hook losing his hand (though the reason behind him losing his hand is very different in Tiger Lily), and the bird nest floating on the water.
Differences
Peter Pan
– Set in a magical world that is part imagination and part real.
– Peter never grows up.
– The pirates, tribes, and lost boys constantly hunting each other is a game.
Tiger Lily
– The world is literal and scientific.
– Peter grows up.
– The pirates have a truce with the tribe so there is no constant hunting-each-other game.
– Captain Hook doesn’t lose his hand to Peter Pan. He lost it in a factory accident. (Making it realistic also made it kind of ridiculous in my opinion.)
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
My name is Jessica. I love to read Young Adult and classic literature. I’ve been a book blogger for six years and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. I’m a very curious reader. Writing about all the questions and thoughts I had while reading a book is the best hobby ever.
Huh, I kind of lost interest in reading Tiger Lily after some other folks’ reviews. You have solidified that for me. But I really want to read Peter Pan! You read a book version, right? Not the play?
Yeah I read the novelization. It’s called Peter and Wendy sometimes so people could tell it apart from the play. I think JM Barrie wrote the novelization after the play became so popular. Peter Pan was SO good! Tiger Lily not so much. Maybe a better Peter Pan retelling will come out soon :/