Grow Up, Peter Pan!

Grow Up, Peter Pan! is a humorous retelling of the Peter Pan story by Captain Hook, from his point of view. It is paired in the same volume with the same story told from the traditional point of view. To read one version you open the book from the front; to read the opposing version you flip the book over and read it from the "back". Both stories end in the middle. This book was first published in 1993 as part of the educational "Steck-Vaughn Point of View Stories" series, which gave similar treatment to other familiar, classic tales, including A Deal Is a Deal/Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella/That Awful Cinderella, Robin Hood/The Sheriff Speaks, and Snow White/The Unfairest of Them All. The stories in these books are written by Alvin Granowsky; this one is illustrated by Stephen Marchesi.

As Hook tells it, he was a properly-educated gentleman, trying to ply a difficult trade as a sea merchant. Upon encountering Peter Pan in Neverland, Hook offered him a job on the ship, but Peter refused to accept the responsibility of working for a living. Hook was certain that the Lost Boys had been kidnapped by Peter, and sought to rescue them from his slothful influence. He describes the sword fight in which Peter cut off his "arm" and fed it to the crocodile, with Peter as the instigator. He gave Peter a sleeping potion only so he could safely transport him on his ship to London. Likewise, he abducted the Darlings and the Lost Boys with the intent of teaching them responsibility and taking them back to London; he pretended to threaten them with walking the plank as an incentive to take the alternative he'd offered: jobs on his ship. But Peter awoke and killed Hook's crew, so he and his followers could take their gold instead of working for it. Tinker Bell blinded him, causing him to fall in the water, where he was attacked by the crocodile and lost a leg in his escape. Now he is retired and leaves Peter to the authorities.

Although this version of the story is clearly sugar-coated and not very credible, the characterization of Hook is based on some traits found in the original: Hook was educated as a gentleman, and is concerned about maintaining "good form" and (at least the pretense of) keeping one's word.

The back cover is titled Peter Pan: A Classic Tale, with the color scheme reversed from the front. The story presented in this half of the book is a fairly standard abbreviated retelling of the plot from the play or novel, skipping over the parts featuring the Indians, mermaids, Marooner's Rock, etc and going quickly from the Darlings' arrival to the confrontation with the pirates. The illustrations and spot color are sepia rather than black ink, to help distinguish them from the other story in the book.