TIGERHEART is Peter David's lyrical re-imagining of
Peter Pan, "The Boy who wouldn't grow up." The book is
really the story of two boys; "The Boy" of legend and Paul
Dear.
Paul Dear lived in London with his mother and father.
Raised by a doting mother and on his father's fantastic
stories of the Anyplace with its pixies, red Indians, and
dastardly pirate crews...and of course "The Boy." Everything
revolves around "The Boy." Paul's life is perfect and life
gets better for the Dears when Paul's little sister Bonnie
is born. Bonnie's sojourn with the family is sweet but all
too short, sudden tragedy strikes and she is taken away
after barely a fortnight. Paul's life changes overnight.
His mother's eyes are suddenly empty when she looks at Paul
and his father. It's not long before she asks Paul's father
to move out. No longer able to bear his mother's grief,
Paul sets out for The Anyplace, accompanied by the pixie
Fiddlefix, in search of a cure for his mother's broken
heart.
His Dreamland is everything he had hoped it would be and
more, but Paul is soon to discover that The Anyplace has
teeth. The pirates are not as comic as the stories would
leave you to believe. The Indians are not so quick to
forgive. The Mermaids, rather than lazing about in their
lagoon are planning sweet vengeance on The Boy who has
dared ignore and refuse them and the late Captain Hack
(Hook) has a sister, Mary Slash, who is less prissy and
more deadly than Captain Hack ever thought to be. And
although the Captain has already been eaten by the time of
Paul's visit, his shadow lingers on, making evil plans for
revenge on all his enemies. His enemies being everyone who
exists on The Anyplace. Then there is the Snow Tiger.
Paul's Dream tiger who meets him in the Anyplace and
teaches Paul about courage, loss, sacrifice and finally
about growing up.
TIGERHEART is a story for all ages. An adventure about a
boy battling pirates and Lost Boys gone bad. Paul is a boy
who faces his fears head on. An ordinary boy, no crowing
and preening boy of legend. Afraid and alone Paul travels
far from home so he can find, not his heart's desire, but
is mother's. A boy who stares death in the face, even
though he is terrified, because it's the right thing to do.
The ending is brilliant. Paul brings his mother what she
needs to heal her broken heart and it's nothing that
readers will ever predict or expect. An amazing story.
Paul Dear is a good and clever boy, doted on by a father
who fills his son’s head with tall tales, thrilling
legends, and talk of fairy-folk, and by a mother who
indulges these fantastic stories and tempers them with
common sense. But Paul is special in ways that even his
adoring parents could never have imagined. For by day, in
London’s Kensington Gardens, he walks and talks with the
pixies and sprites and other magical creatures that dwell
among the living–but are unseen by most. And at night in
his room, a boy much like himself, yet not, beckons to
Paul from the mirror to come adventuring. It’s a happy
life for Paul, made all the more so by the birth of his
baby sister.
But everything changes when tragedy strikes, and Paul
concludes that there’s only one course of action he can
take to dispel the darkness and make things right again.
And like countless heroes before him, he knows that he
must risk everything to save the day.
Thus begins a quest that will lead Paul down the city’s
bustling streets, to a curio shop where a magical ally
awaits him, and launches him into the starry skies, bound
for a realm where anything is possible. Far from home, he
will run with fierceIndian warriors, cross swords with
fearsome pirates, befriend a magnificent white tiger, and
soar beside an extraordinary, ageless boy who reigns in a
boundless world of imagination.
Brimming with the sly humor and breathless excitement of a
traditional Victorian bedtime story, deftly embroidered
with its own unique wisdom and wonder, Tigerheart is a
hymn to childhood’s happiness and heartbreak, a meditation
on the love, courage, sacrifice, and faith that shape us
and define our lives, and a splendidly rendered modern
fable–for readers of any age–that brilliantly proves
itself a worthy brother to the timeless classic that serve
as its inspiration.