You Can Fly: A Sequel to the Peter Pan Tales

By Chuck Rosenthal

Thomas Pandora is the son of Peter Pan and Wendy, but Thomas doesn't know it. They've hidden it from him, wisely or not, to protect him, and they plan to hide it from him all their lives. On the eve of Thomas Pandora's thirteenth birthday, he's visited by a mysterious fairy named Tink who tells him that Hook is back, and without Peter Pan there to protect Never Never Land, Hook will soon have it conquered and despoiled. He, Thomas Pandora, is the only one who can save them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Whitepoint Press
• Release date: Sep 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781944856106

Chuck Rosenthal

Chuck Rosenthal was born in Erie, Pennsylvania; he moved to northern California in 1978 and has lived in Los Angeles since 1986. In 1994, at the age of 43, he began riding horses, and he purchased his first horse, Jackie O, an Arabian Thoroughbred bay mare in 1995. She died on January 17, 2009, at the age of 22. His new horse, La Femme Nikita, is a buckskin Morgan, age 7. He tries to ride six days a week.

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Reviews for You Can Fly

[donnerlibrary · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I love the original Peter Pan story and have enjoyed updated versions of it so I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed.You Can Fly is a very short novel but I struggled to get through it because I simply could not stay focused. The story did not sustain my interest. Characters were reflections of the originals - Peter Pan, Wendi, Tinkerbell, the Lost Boys, Captain Hook, Tiger Lily - but had no depth of their own. I felt that the author was trying to convey some meaning about growing up or innocence or childhood but I never quite grasped what he was trying to say. The action felt choppy, repetitive, and ultimately pointless.

[tabatha014 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

*I received this book as an Early Reviewer giveaway* This is an interesting take on Peter Pan, but it never reached it's full potential. It's about Thomas, who is the son of Peter and Wendy but doesn't know it, until Tinkerbell shows up and tell him about Never Never Land. It's a short and easy read, but I wasn't crazy about it.

[written-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If you enjoy Peter Pan and books or stories about Peter Pan and Never Never Land, I think you'll enjoy this rather short (151 pages) book.This is the story of Thomas Pandora the son of Peter Pan and Wendy but Thomas doesn't know. He is just a boy(soon to turn 13) who enjoys adventure and running free with his dog. He doesn't like school or the things that his classmates are into. He feels his parents are hiding something from him and he sees the people around him growing up and not enjoying life. He wants to stay young and be a boy. He starts having dreams and then seeing a light and hearing a voice. Should he tell his mother? Then I guess you could say his adventure begins and I discovered things that I hadn't known about the "real" Peter Pan. I also was a little startled at how the story ended...huh?I received this book through LibraryThing early reviewers.

[amaryann21 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I couldn't finish this short novel. I got halfway through and lost all motivation to continue. The characters are wooden and strange, the writing felt choppy and while the characters in the original Peter Pan and Wendy story are similar/same, that's the only connection. I couldn't tell who the author's audience is, due to the more mature nature of some of the writing. Sadly, I have no interest in how the book ends.

[eawsmom · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as an Early Reviewer. I confess I was somewhat disappointed in it. It felt like it was written in a hurry, with no real character development and lots of "action-packed" scenes which were crammed together too closely.There were also some statements which I think were meant to be deeply philosophical but which were merely confusing, to me at least.All in all, I would sooner recommend the "Peter and the Starcatchers" series to readers who want more Peter Pan stories than this book.

[bragan_8 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Thomas P. Pandora is the son of a grown-up Peter Pan and one of his Wendys -- not the original Wendy, but a descendant of the original. They don't tell him where he came from, but he finds out on the eve of his thirteenth birthday when Tinkerbell arrives to take him to Never Never Land, where he's expected to help fight Captain Hook and prevent him from destroying magic on the island and taking it over forever.Man... What even to say about this one? I do think there are some interesting approaches to the Peter Pan story in it. In particular, the idea that Lost Boys themselves become the pirates when they lose enough of their innocence and begin to grow up is a really intriguing one with a lot of potential. But ultimately nothing particularly satisfying is done with it, or with any other elements that might have been promising.Mostly, my first impression of this book was that it was just... bad. It's full of clunky backstory explanations, strange-sounding dialog, and attempts at addressing the kinds of themes you might expect in a Peter Pan story -- innocence, adolescence, good and evil, imagination -- that sometimes feel like they're starting to get at something worthwhile, but just never quite work. After a while, though, I started thinking, maybe it's not the book. Maybe it's me. I am seeing little glimpses of something that could be pretty cool in all this, so maybe there are deliberate writing choices here that I don't fully understand, and just because what it's doing isn't clicking with me doesn't mean it's inherently bad.I'd almost come close to maybe convincing myself that perhaps this might possibly be sort of true, and then this weird, out-of-the-blue plot thing happened that had me turning pages backward to make sure I hadn't missed anything, and with it came even more clunky backstory explanations and a bunch of action sequences that were maybe trying to say something profound about fighting and growing up, but were mostly a bit incoherent. And at that point, I just gave up trying to convince myself that I might like it better if I were a better reader and accepted that it's just kind of a mess. It is, in places, something of an interesting mess. It's a mess that might have something worthwhile buried inside it, peeking out. But mostly, it's a mess.Rating: 2/5. Which, if I'm honest, is probably still me trying to be generous to it.

[booksandblintzes · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Chuck Rosenthal's sequel to the Peter Pan tales find Pan and Wendy's son returning to Neverland which is facing extinction, maybe, because it's possibly losing its magic? Everything in Neverland is possible - and the disconnect between imagination and reality, and the power of make believe is supposedly at the center of this novella. The book is interesting in its premise that there must always be a new Pan and/or Wendy, and that life continues in Neverland in its own time. Pirates and gypsies - representing evil and independence - are ever-present threats to innocence. There is so much unmet potential in this book, mainly because the characters are so broadly drawn. Yes, anything can happen in Neverland. But nothing really does. The author's pejorative use of the label "gypsies" is constantly disturbing, and the characters are not likeable or easy to relate to. Perhaps if I was a 12 year old boy I would enjoy the adventure more. The author has some excellent ideas, but needs to get back to work. It reads as being incomplete. So 2 stars for a good start and potential, but I skimmed the 2nd half.

[shuffy2_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Peter Pan eventually leaves Neverland to grow up and start a family but his past catches up with his twelve year old son Thomas PANdora. Tink arrives and although Thomas is skeptical, he flies off with her and encounters many familiar faces. Captain Hook, Smee, Tiger Lily and a ‘new’ Wendy are there but Neverland is not the same as it once was. Can Thomas become the Peter Pan they need to set things right?Where do I start? Thomas is twelve yet the story is an odd mix of adult and juvenile themes, it was very confusing to determine the audience for the book. I was excited at the idea of the book but it jumped around so much that it was hard to keep up or understand where the author was going. I often reread passages thinking I had missed something but I had not. I read about 2/3 of the book before skimming the rest of the book as it could no longer keep my attention. Yes, I read an ‘uncorrected proof’ but it needs way more editing and writing to clean-up and clarify the overall story.

[mysterymax_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I delayed writing this review, hoping that if some time past I would find positive things to say about the book, but YOU CAN FLY was a disappointment and distancing with time isn’t going to change that. First, the book barely qualifies as a novel, if it even does. At one hundred fifty pages it is more of a novella. The problem is: it’s not even a good novella. I try to find positive features of the books I review because we don’t all like the same thing, but with this book it is difficult. Perhaps I expected too much from a sequel of Peter and Wendy’s adventure tale. Dan Berry did such a wonderful job with his prequel Starcatcher series, I was hoping for something more substantial than what I got. The tale is just a retelling of the original story, only now with Peter and Wendy’s son as Pan. The characters are not developed and feel like paper cutouts. The writing is bland and fails to engage you. We’re told Peter feels this, or his motive is that, but you never ‘see’ it. The new Peter is thirteen and the writer doesn’t seem to know whether he’s a child or teenager. He’s too naïve to be thirteen. It’s not even a story for young readers as there is some content that I would feel reluctant to put into a book for young readers. In all the years I have been reviewing ER books, this is only the fourth time I have given one star to a book.

[delphimo_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

For a short book, the reading time continued like a plague. I expected fun and excitement, and only found boredom and clichés. I felt that I might be reading an uneventful children's author, but the constant mention of sex stopped those thoughts. The story read like one of the 1950's primers for elementary students, with battles and killing and violence. I have read J M Barrie's Peter Pan, and yes, Rosenthal presents the same characters, but with lack of emotion.

[jonnijones-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a strange book. It’s a fairy tale/fantasy for adults. It’s definitely not for children. I didn’t realize that when I first started reading. The first few pages were slow and I thought simple and eccentric. But I was in one of those rare moods where I was willing to put up with simple and eccentric and see where it went. It really wasn’t until Tinkerbelle showed up that I got really interested in what was happening.Thomas P. Pandora is the son of Peter Pan and Wendy although he doesn’t know that. His personality is different from his father’s who was lighthearted, playful, and mischievous. Thomas is thoughtful, pragmatic, and understands strategy. Even so, he doesn’t want war and he doesn’t want to fight. All he wants is to not grow up.But he has to fight in order to save Neverland, the Lost Boys, and the magic that keeps everything together. This is a sad and violent story. It can be graphic. The “new” Wendy is a warrior and a fighter. Tinkerbelle is treacherous and duplicitous. Interestingly, Hook’s nemesis the crocodile was one of the more agreeable creatures in the story. If you’re looking for something fun to read, this isn’t it. It’s an interesting and sad read. If you’re in the mood for a dark retold-fairy tale this may be one you might like. In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

[sailorfigment · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

So Peter Pan finally grows up and marries a Wendy. They have a son, Thomas, who is destined to become the new Peter Pan. The premise sounds a bit cheezy, but it has potential: Thomas has to save Never Never Land from Captain Hook, whom the croc has spit back.My first reaction was that the dialogue was choppy, like bits of it just 'fell out' or were left out. Then the narration part got choppy, too, like maybe the author was thinking faster than he was typing. He had some good ideas: the Lost Boys being the source of the magic, the mermaids painting things into existence, and a colony of female pirates. But all the characters were one-dimensional, even Peter and Wendy. The reader didn’t know what they were thinking or feeling or why they did things.The story just got choppier as it went along. It felt like the author had a lot of ideas for scenes, but wasn't able to string them together in to a cohesive story. Even the final battle, which had the most potential and some really good strategy, was just plain bad.The only positive thing I can say is that the book is short, otherwise I would never have finished it. Thank you, Early Reviewers for giving me this book. I would have been very disappointed if I had bought it on my own.Best quote: "Never Never Land is magical, not simple." - Tiger Lily