Rating: Not for me

The version of Peter Pan I read here is adapted based on the Disney animated film. I was hopeful that this would be a good fantasy selection for my 2nd grader’s genre challenge, but now I’m not wild about it (it certainly needs parent supervision, but maybe that is not enough to overcome the shortfalls).

Sure it has the usual issues so often in young books:

  • A villain is oppressive and abusive (both physically & verbally). In this case, Captain Hook hits his first mate smithy, and also calls him names like, “blundering idiot.”  Peter also at one point calls his followers “blockheads.”
  • A parent is incompetent or unreasonable. In this story, the children’s father throws a temper tantrum about the kids’ behavior as imaginative, resourceful explorer/creators. So the parent is the clown, in a way.
  • Romance is far too heavily represented. Here, it manifests as jealousy both with Tinkerbell jealous of Wendy, and later Wendy jealous of a Native American princess.
  • Violence. The usual gun/cannon/sword fighting violence, but with young boys handling firearms. 

But the big issue that makes me cringe is the way Native Americans are represented:

  • Poor representation of Native Americans. Upon arriving in never-never land, the first thing the boys do is “go on a mission to track down Indians.” Upon spying a footprint in the path, John says, “Indians… Blackfoot.” The boys end up being captured by the very people they are hunting. In a surprising twist we find out that this “game” happens quite often and usually the captors set the captives free. However today the chief is angry because his daughter has been kidnapped (by Captain Hook, of conse), and the chief blames the boys. I feel most uncomfortable with the chief’s opening statement, “For many moons, red man fight with pale-face lost boys…”

I’m just not comfortable with my kid thinking about Native Americans in this way, and I’m not sure whether it would be enough to hold conversations with my young reader about fear of the unknown that drove a lot of misconceptions about Native Americans, the flaws of culture at the time, proper ways to refer to people (avoid, for example, “red man”!), and humble respect rooted in Gods love for all people.