Peter and the Shadow Thieves
By: Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
Peter and the Shadow Thieves is the second book in the “Star Catcher” series. Peter is the same Peter from Peter Pan, the eternally young, hotheaded boy who stirs up trouble wherever he goes. Wendy, another famous character is not part of this series, but her mother, Molly, is. For the majority of the first book Captain Hook is known as Black Stache. The natives are known as Mollusks and the lost boys are still the lost boys.

The Star Catchers are a secret society dedicated to catching a magical substance called “Star Stuff” and keeping it away from a group called the Others. When star stuff touches a person that person gains abilities, such as flying, strength, or the ability to read other peoples intentions. The others use the Star Stuff to benefit themselves, while the Star Catchers seek to “return it” and only use a minimal amount to secure the rest. In the novel, all myth and legend is based on Star Stuff, animals that touch Star Stuff are affected differently than humans. A horse could change into a centaur, and an octopus into a sea serpent. Peter handled a large amount of Star Stuff that altered him, and he gained the ability to fly forever, and gave him eternal youth. Though a series of events Black Stache loses his hand and a crocodile eats it. Then the Star Catchers gain all the lost Star Stuff.

Now Peter is on an island called Mollusk Island (also known as Neverland). Peter has been on the island for three months. He has tortured the pirates stranded on the island with him for the length of that time. In the middle of a rescue attempt to save one of the lost boys, who Hook captured, the Mollusk chief finds out that other men have come to the island They have come searching for Star Stuff that was on the island but was taken by the Star Catchers, at this time Peter observes some of a certain “man’s” powers; this man’s name is Lord Ombra. He is a shadowy figure who nobody knows much about only that he has certain ways of controlling people. After a brief confrontation with the Mollusks, the men leave, and Peter follows. They eventually reach London, England. Peter then searches for an old friend, Molly, although he is not the only one looking for her.

This book has many elements that make it a great read witch are suspense, switching between main characters, and the individual voices of the characters. For one, it ends up being a very suspenseful read. The book cover itself sparks interest. Many times the authors use one-word sentences such as “Darkness” to create suspense. Another great thing about this book is it changes viewpoints, so there are many main characters, and you have a broader picture of what is going on. The language in this book is varied from person to person, the sophisticated manner of the Aster’s changes drastically from the dialect of the pirates. This is a good book for most people sixth grade and up because of the length of the book and some of the intense scenes,