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Reviewed by:
  • Sisters of the Neversea by Cynthia Leitich Smith
  • Fiona Hartley-Kroeger
Smith, Cynthia Leitich Sisters of the Neversea. Heartdrum/HarperCollins,
2021 [320 p]
Trade ed. ISBN 9780062869975 $16.99
E-book ed. ISBN 9780062869999 $8.99
Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 4-6

Despite family tensions at home, stepsisters Wendy Darling and Lily Roberts, with their younger brother Michael in tow, find Neverland not at all delightful in Smith's Native-focused revision of Peter Pan. When ominously charming Peter lures Wendy and Michael from their Tulsa home off to Neverland, Lily teams up with Peter's errant shadow and goes in pursuit. Lily, a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation, seeks out the Native kids Peter has abducted over the years and mounts a rescue operation to free Wendy, Michael, and the Lost boys. Wendy plots an escape of her own, and Peter's fairy guardian Belle realizes that she's indulged his destructive whims for too long. Smith prods at the imperialist aspects of Barrie's story, laying [End Page 440] bare the ecological destruction, racism, and misogyny that Peter's narcissism enacts on the island. The Native kids Lily meets, kidnapped by Peter to serve as play-opponents, emphasize their understanding of the island through wisdom and information passed down by previous generations, in stark contrast to the Fairy dust–induced forgetfulness and identity erasure of the Lost. Wendy models white allyship, shutting down Peter's ignorant and hurtful assumptions about "Injuns," while the island's Merfolk and pirates have their own relationships to the Native community. Though Peter's eventual remorse and path to redemption are a bit tidy, through him Smith offers the possibility of learning and change for the better. Peter's emphatically not the hero of the piece, though; that honor belongs firmly to Lily and Wendy and their persevering family bond. An author's note discusses Smith's retelling process and some major thematic threads.

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