Peter Pan in Scarlet

The official sequel to Peter Pan, Peter Pan in Scarlet, has been commissioned by Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital Charity to compensate for the fact that the copyright on the original book, donated to the hospital by JM Barrie, has expired.

The "scarlet" of the title refers to the scarlet coat of Captain Hook which Peter is conned into wearing. Wendy and her siblings, now grown up, return to Neverland in their previous childhood forms to find the land polluted and devastated by a poison released by the terrible Captain Hook.

Many of the subsequent adventures that Peter, Wendy and the others experience are diffused and many-sided, and often metaphysical in their resolutions. The social and public-school references are from another age – it would be essential for the reader to have great familiarity with Barrie's original book and other sources to understand much in the sequel and it might prove a difficult read for modern children.

This is not to take away from MacCaughrean's ability to recreate the tone of the original without mimicking it and, for the most part, to keep the snide adult asides of JM Barrie at bay.

The silhouette illustrations by David Wyatt are a delight.

Peter Pan in Scarlet. By Geraldine McCaughrean. Illustrated by David Wyatt Oxford University Press, €16.99 (ages 9+)  

TONY HICKEY