Peter and the Starcatchers will appeal to a wide audience. I generally do not like fantasies and I enjoyed reading this book. I think that children, adults, boys, and girls will like equally like this book. One reason that I liked it so much was the colorful language. I was effortlessly able to picture every scene and character in the book. The author’s use of simile was right on the mark. One simile that I really liked is found in a chapter titled, “Heavy Like a Trunk.” The simile, “The towering mountain of rock and jungle, engulfed in a heavy white mist, rose before Stache’s vision like an altar” jumped out at me. I could picture Stache watching the scene unfold before him.
Another use of simile on page 323, I found to be just beautiful. The authors describe a full moon, “looking impossibly large in the cloudless sky, as though it had drawn closer to earth to get a better look at this strange island.” I have seen the full moon low in the sky and have never thought of it being there to get a “better look” of the earth, but that it exactly what it looks like the moon is doing.
The humor in the book is appropriate for children, but appealing to adult as well. When Slank tells Little Richard to milk the cow, Little Richard replies that he does not know how. Slank then implies that this is exactly why it is a good idea. I find that so funny, but am not sure that a child would understand the humor.
Barry and Pearson not only do a good job of helping the reader to visualize the characters, they also help the reader to understand the relationship between the characters without actually telling us what they are. We know how Molly and Peter feel about each other because the author describes the way the glance at each other and the way they feel when they around each other. We know that James respects Peter and that Peter cares for James, not because the author tells us point blank, but because they lead us to believe this.
I had a hard time putting this book down after I started reading and can’t wait to share it.
