Parents' Guide to Sisters of the Neversea

Parents need to know that Sisters of the Neversea is an imaginative, engaging return to the world of Peter Pan. It's the work of Muscogee Creek author Cynthia Leitich Smith, who always loved the adventure and imagination of the original but was shocked by its ignorant, racist stereotypes about Native Americans. The story centers on two 12-year-old stepsisters -- one British-born, one Muscogee Creek -- who, along with their 4-year-old brother, are spirited away to a world populated by pirates, Merfolk, Indigenous people, Lost Boys, and Peter Pan. The latter has become a charming but self-absorbed and sometimes murderous tyrant (dispatching both kids and animals). There's lots of peril (near-drownings, scary caves, etc.), swordplay, shooting of arrows, etc., but none of the characters comes to real harm. One Indigenous character describes herself as "two-spirit" (both male and female), and the language, culture, and history of several Native tribes, particularly those in the Oklahoma area, are important to the story. In the background, the kids' parents may be splitting up, and they're all anxious about that. And a boy in Neverland is reluctant to return home because he has an abusive, drunken stepfather. There's a lot of pirate singing of "yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum," but when it comes time to celebrate and break out the rum, the captain says firmly, "None for the sprogs." Fairy dust is seen as having long-term effects like memory loss and extreme self-absorption. Expect strong messages of family, belonging, respect for your own culture (and others), kindness, resilience, and redemption.