A sturdy picture biography of J.M. Barrie shines light before and beyond the wild success of Peter Pan. The narrative captures Barrie’s child persona through deftly chosen details: “Whenever his favorite magazine, Sunshine, didn’t arrive on time, he would write stories himself. Up in the top floor of the house, he scribbled away.” His mother’s intense grief over the death of a favored older brother left six-year-old Jamie doubly bereft. The author disproves Barrie’s characterization of an impoverished childhood, preferring her own scholarship to his romantic embroidery. She lists 13 titles as “a few of the many books” consulted, yet some quotations lack context for modern child readers. Barrie tells his young friends, “that the Peter Pan character was based on them. ‘I always knew that I made Peter by rubbing the five of you violently together, as savages with two sticks produce a flame.’ ” Adams's distinctive acrylic-on-board pictures juxtapose full-page scenes from Barrie’s life with facing spots that fancifully illustrate snippets from the books and plays. A bit opaque, yet handsome and useful. (Picture book/biography. 7-10)
