James Matthew Barrie

The Little White Bird; Or, Adventures in Kensington Gardens James Matthew Barrie

The Little White Bird by James Barrie is a fanciful story about childhood. The main character is an older man who in a way represents Barrie himself and his relationship with another family. The story begins with him talking to a young boy named David who happens to be the other main character in the story. The tale begins with the man explaining how he helped the boys parents to get together because of his fascination with David's mother Mary. While the story includes much that is unfamiliar to me as it takes place around 1900 in London it also includes much that I remember from my childhood as in many ways this was the dry run for the much better known story of Peter Pan also by Barrie. So of course the most familiar character in the book is young Peter but he is not the young boy he is remembered as today but instead is little more than a baby who has many of the traits which later go into the more mature character. He is the eternal child who in this story lives in Kensington Gardens where all of the magic in this book takes place. In some ways that is the greatest thing n this story, its ability to change things that we as adults often see as mundane into things caused by either magic or adventure.