The Bridge to Never Land by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

Title/Author: The Bridge to Never Land (Peter and the Starcatchers #5) by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Publisher/Date published: Hyperion, August 9th 2011
How I got this book: received it from the publisher through NetGalley

Goodreads summary: "One summer morning while Aidan and Sarah are visiting their grandfather, they discover a secret compartment in his battered wooden desk. Inside is a yellowed envelope that contains a piece of very thin, almost translucent, white paper, on which, handwritten in black ink, are a series of seemingly random lines; among them are what appear to be fragments of letters, but not enough to make sense. At the bottom of the page is a verse about Peter Peter and a reference to a real hotel in London.
As it happens, the family is about to embark on a trip to Europe, so the children decide that while in London, they will try to locate the hotel. Through some careful sleuthing, they manage to discover its location, and once inside, they find another clue. The Bridge to Never Land will take Sarah and Aidan on a quest that will challenge them to solve a series of puzzles, which will gradually convince them that Peter Pan is not fiction after all."

I have only read the first book in this series, but that didn't detract from my reading experience in the least! Although I think I had a little less anxiety about the main bad guy than I would have had if I'd read the other 3 books as well. But not to worry: if you haven't read them, you can still read this one!

We meet up with Sarah and Adrian, who go questing together in search of a way into Never Land and meet up with Molly Aster's greatgrandson in the process. I really liked Sarah, but both the boys seemed a bit dull. And I kept thinking: WHERE'S PETER?? He doesn't enter the scene until we are pretty close to the end and the book's named after him! PETER and the Starcatchers. I would have liked to have seen more of him or having them spend more time on Never Land.

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy this book. Cause I did. The storytelling is very good and I just flew through the book, even though again it's pretty big for a children's book (448 pages). I loved that they were in Disneyworld! I think the Peter Pan ride mentioned in it is also in Disneyland and I really loved that one :)

The bad guy is pretty creepy and the ending left me with a feeling there's much exploring left for Peter and his friend, which makes me happy :)

My rating: 3,5 stars