Not a Disneyfied, watered-down, junior retelling, you understand . . . .
But the full thing. The original. The real deal.
It's not ideal for a four-year-old, it must be said, but he was adamant he wanted to give it a shot. Thus far, three main problems:
1) The language can be rather challenging (for us as much as for him).
2) It's a little dark in places (for example, Peter Pan's observation that 'There's a pirate asleep in the pampas just beneath us' and his subsequent suggestion that 'If you like, we'll go down there and kill him . . . .' - this the type of passage that I tend to skip).
3) The B - for some inexplicable reason - thinks he's reading Harry Potter.
Those issues aside, it's going rather well and he's enjoying it, even if, most mornings at the breakfast table, he admits, 'I can't remember what happened in Peter Pan last night'.
That doesn't seem to put him off, or The G for that matter.
'I want to read Peter Pan,' she said a little earlier.
Nine chapters still to go, she's going to have to hang on a little longer . . . .
I have this book too and look forward to sharing it with my kids. Like you I tend to skip dark passages when reading older books, sometimes.
ReplyDeleteBut I also think it's great for kids to experience books too hard/too old for them, if they're interested. They might not understand much but they still get a lot out of it and they will have a sense of awe and mystery around the book and revisit it when they're older.
For now my kids love the Disney version!
Happy #FictionFriday Can't get on Twitter so sharing with you here and on FB http://amummysview.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/book-review-martha-and-the-bunny-brothers-i-heart-school-clara-vuilliamy/
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