The Bridge to Neverland: Book Review

Title: The Bridge to Neverland
Authors: Dave Berry and Ridley Pearson
My Rating: 3 and A Half Stars
Buy The Book:
-HERE-



"Aiden and Sarah Cooper have no idea what they're getting into one afternoon when they discover a mysterious coded document in a secret compartment of an antique English desk their father recently bought at an auction. Something about the document seems familiar to Sarah, and that night she realizes what it is: the document seems to be referring to some books she has read -- the Starcatchers series, about the origin of Peter Pan. But how could that be? The document seems far older than the books. And of course, the books are just stories...

Curious, Sarah and Aiden begin to decipher the mysterious document. At first it's a game -- unraveling the mystery piece by piece, each piece leading them to a new, deeper puzzle.

But soon the game turns strange -- and scary.
They discover that the "stories" are real, and that what they thought was a fictional battle between good and evil is still going on. And the scariest part is: They have become part of it.

Pursued by a being that can take any form and will stop at nothing to get what it wants from them, Aiden and Sarah embark on a desperate, thrilling quest for help -- a quest that leads them to some unforgettable people in some unlikely places, including one that's not supposed to exist at all. At each step they must solve new puzzles and escape new dangers, all the while knowing that if they fail, the evil they are fleeing will be let loose on an unsuspecting world."

While hunting through the library bookshelves for a completely different book one afternoon, I stumbled upon this. The title was the thing that did me in. I'm a huge fan of anything Peter Pan, so naturally, this appealed to me very much. After I had read the description, I got even more excited. It was sort of a sequel to the Starcatchers series I so much enjoyed. So, totally ditching the other book I had come to get, I got this out instead.

Unfortunately, as much as I was excited about this book, it did not turn out to be very great, in my opinion. For one, it didn't seem to have the general feeling of the previous book's writing. I took into account that this is supposed to happen a long, long time after the other book took place, but I still couldn't get into it. The pace went far too quickly, the characters didn't catch my immediate attention and draw me in, and the writing didn't stand out to me at all. I really wanted to give this the benefit of the doubt and enjoy it, but I just couldn't get into it. The adventure was fun, I will admit, but it wasn't my cup of tea.

There were several negative things that I think might have added to the feeling I came out with. First of all, I did not enjoy the general lying, stealing and treatment the children gave to the parents. It was very disrespectful and I did not appreciate that. The second thing I really did not like in the book was the fact that the Lord's name was taken in vain more than a dozen times.

All in all, the age range recommended by the publisher for this book is ages 9-12. I do not highly recommend it, though.






What's Coming Up Next?

The Horse and His Boy, by C.S. Lewis
Raising Dragons, by Bryan Davis
Skeleton Key, by Anthony Horowitz
The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck, by Kathleen Y'Barro
Torrent, by Lisa T. Bergren
Life Support, by Robert Whitlow
Precisely Terminated, by Amanda L. Davis
And a special, in-depth review of, Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, by J.K. Rowling