It’s time for the first Quarter update of The Wendy! I hope everyone participating has enjoyed their books so far or at least gotten their copy. I know the mail can be quite a pain sometimes when you’re waiting for your book to arrive.

If you’ve not signed up for the April Readalong yet and would like to, you can find all the information for that process here on the signups page. There’s also a timeline for how I’ll be reading the book, but you’re under no obligation to follow that. We should be nearing the first fourth of the book with our reading on Sunday, which’ll put us all at about page 70.

How are you enjoying the book so far? Any favorite characters? What do you think of them versus their J.M. Barrie counterparts? Be sure to let me know in the comments or on Twitter (@SPasciuti_ or #RFReadalong)!

Regarding the book (so spoilers!);

I am in love with this book. Wendy’s character is beautiful in her ambition and intelligence so much so that I will likely forever be filled with delight at the prospect of reading her story. This is my second read of this book so far this year and likely won’t be the last. I love to hate that pest, Mortimer Black, and I’m exceptionally fond of Olaudah Equiano (or Gustavus Vassa) who, if you’ve not learned yet, is actually a real person from history.

I think one thing that this book does exceptionally well is introducing its characters. I have always found myself exceptionally impressed with those moments when I meet someone new, from Olaudah to John and Michael to Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. I hope you all will, too.

This book starts off with a young Wendy who aspires to one day be the Captain of a ship in the royal navy and, despite the likes of Mortimer Black and other such rude doubtfuls, works exceptionally hard at achieving her dream. Though she sees others with the same or even less experience than her find an easy path toward the role she wants with all her heart, Wendy is constantly working toward improving herself and proving to the world that she deserves recognition.

Of course, there’s a lot in the way, namely the fact that many of the men around her (though rarely once they’ve gotten to know her) consistently see her gender alone and use that as a reason to keep her apart. It’s both wonderful and fascinating to see how Wendy reacts to this early on in the novel.

And I have to just say that Michael and John are honestly the most perfect iterations of the two characters I’ve ever seen. I was blown away the first time I read it and I’ve found myself blown away by their characters once again.

We also meet Peter in this first quarter of the book! I always find myself anticipating the appearance of the beloved Peter Pan and let out giddy squees of excitement when he arrives. I cannot even begin to describe how many times I found myself giggling as I read his and Wendy’s first introduction. While I will admit that there some differences to this Peter that I don’t know if I really expected and he certainly feels different than the usual Peters I’ve deeply enjoyed, I am rather fond of this version of him. He’s certainly not the same, but he’s got very similar qualities.

I think you could say that for nearly every character in this book and appreciate them deeply because of it. And remember, whenever you’ve got yourself an introduction to make, singing ‘oh the cleverness of me’ is a very Peter thing to do.

Until next time, happy reading!

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