Your Humble Blogger did not read Peter Pan in Scarlet under ideal conditions. Well, and the conditions at the beginning were terrific: it was a Bedtime Book, read aloud, a chapter a night, with YHB and the Best Reader alternating nights. As is our tradition. Sadly, such a tradition does not easily survive the transition into Household with Infant. The book was set aside. We didn’t finish it. After a few months, we tried to go back, but a couple of nights reading failed to get us back into the habit or into the book. Finally, we gave up, gave each other permission to finish the book privately, and decided to start a new Bedtime Book sometime soon.
And it’s too bad, because we adored the first two-thirds of the book. Well, we adored the first third, and we like the middle third very much. The last third did very little for me, but it didn’t have a chance. I think the book really does fail to come through on its promise, but honestly I don’t know.
This book, by the way, is the only Official Authorized Realio Trulio Sequel to Peter Pan. There are lots of Pan books, but this one has the official seal of The Great Ormond Street Hospital, which owns the rights to Peter Pan, as much as they can be owned, in perpetuity and to the benefit of a bunch of lousy kids.
Tolerabimus quod tolerare debemus,
-Vardibidian.