Peter Pan (version 4)

Peter Pan is the boy who flew out of his nursery window one night and never came back. He dwells in Neverland, where children never grow old, where pirates sail under crimson skies and crocodiles tick like living clocks. When he lures Wendy Darling and her brothers away from their London home, he offers them adventure: sword fights with Captain Hook, swims with mermaids, battles with Indians. But beneath the magic lies a quiet ache. Peter has forgotten his mother. He cannot return home. To grow up is to lose the wonderful cruelty of childhood, and Peter has chosen eternal youth at the cost of everything else. J.M. Barrie's masterpiece operates on two levels: a glorious adventure for children, and a piercing meditation on what it means to refuse the inevitable. The price of never growing up is never being able to fully belong anywhere. It is the most joyful and the saddest book about childhood ever written.