Barrie grew up in Scotland, the seventh child in a poor family. A gifted storyteller and writer, he became interested in theater as a teenager. He wrote his masterpiece, Peter Pan, in 1904, and gifted the copyright to a hospital for sick children in London. His work has helped thousands of children. Quotes.

The whimsical nature of Peter Pan mirrored the life that writer Jamie Barrie envisioned as a young boy in his fantasies. After many hardships, both in growing up and in his career, he was able to make a breakthrough with his famous play, Peter Pan. Beautifully written and illustrated, this book showed the reality of his harboring backstory, all of which was influenced by the life of Barrie and the people who took part of it. From his childhood friend that he played pirates with, to his "golden boy" brother who passed away at a young age, a mother that read him books, and boys that he befriended (and later became the guardians of) that influenced his never-aging band of "lost boys" in a world that he felt he finally belonged in, one where he never had to grow up. I had not known really any of thise things about Barrie. So much of Peter Pan was influenced by his life. ( )

A delightfully illustrated, a well-written story snippets of the man, J.M. Barrie who in many ways was similar to the well-known and well-liked character of Peter Pan. He was a man who truly lived in a fantasy world, short in stature, high-pitched in voice, he loved to play with children.

While he noted to many that his background was poor, in fact his family was moderately successful and his elaboration was false. He was born of a large family, one of seven who felt he was forgotten. His mother was an instrumental figure in his life as she read stories to the children.

He developed his talents by writing small books that soon became successful, some of which featured a make believe town in Scotland called Thrums. Walking his dog in London's Kensington Gardens changed his life indelibly when he met the Llewelyn Davies children. Soon, he and his dog played make-believe stories in the park.

When he creatively made a character called Peter Pan, a boy who refused to grow up, he pulled together the traits of all five Llewellyn children and incorporated the games they played in the park.

He became close to Sylvia Llewellyn, and when her husband died of cancer, he vowed to support the family.

Later in life as he became a wealthy man from the Peter Pan plays, the copyright of Peter Pan was given to the Great Ormond Hospital for Sick Children in London.

Dying in 1937, the character of Peter Pan lives on today in books, movies and plays.

Four Stars! ( )

Historical Fiction

I had mixed feelings about this book after reading it. I liked the book because of the characters were believable and well developed. The story spoke of the Barrier family and gave definite information about Jamie and his family. Jamie on two occasions went to reside with his older brother. In which time he came to love theater. As Jamie got older, the story fellows his life in meeting and marry his wife to meeting the Llewelyn family on whom his most famous play was based on. I could see a man with no children playing a role in the lives of the four boys. He became like God parents to these boys and adopted and took care of them when their parents died. The reason I didn't like the book was because of the illustrations. The art work seemed so boring and dry. It just didn't appeal to me and it made me want to close the book before I finished reading it. The message that I got from this story is that you have to believe in yourself when no one else does. ( )