Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Little White Bird [Book Review]

[Some spoilers included.]

After reading the Helen Keller book, I got it in my mind to read "Peter Pan," but I'm sort of a stickler to do things in proper order. I'm always obsessed with the origin of things and what lies at the beginning of something. And low and behold, "Peter Pan" was not the first Peter Pan book. As it turns out, there was something that came before, and so I threw out all my plans and read something a bit different.

"The Little White Bird, or Adventures in Kensington Gardens" is a book written by J.M. Barrie. It was published in 1902. It has a very eccentric writing style that took me about five whole chapters to get used to, but it grew on me.

The main plot of the book concerns a soldier who becomes the best of friends of a boy named David who belongs to a woman who slipped through his fingers into the hands of another man. It tells all about their friendship and the time they spent in Kensington Gardens. The writing of it sounds more like the musings of a man who has a lot of time on his hands.

Despite how very grounded this book is in reality, it is also very much a fairy tale, but presented in very subtle ways. The above description really is the plot of the book, but the author mentions fairy tale aspects of the story in an extremely casual way. It's as if you just already know that fairies are real, so none of this extra stuff should be all that complicated.

The idea of Barrie's world is that all children originate as little birds who are sent to mothers to become human children. This explains why children grow up so silly. It's the birdiness in them that hasn't faded away yet. He uses this to explain the odd childish behaviors of David throughout the book.

There are a few other odd things that seem to casually happen throughout the author's realistic telling of his relationship with David, such as the rather unexpected transformation of his dog Porthos into an adult human being named William Paterson. In this strange episode, it is very clear that this transformation has occurred, but the author does not seem to believe it. It leads the reader to laugh at his disbelief when something so magical has really just occurred. It proved to be my favorite part of the whole book.

Yes, indeed. Peter Pan is in this book. There are about five chapters concerning him, right smack in the middle of this book. He was a bird too, it seems, but he chose to fly away from his mother and live within the Kensington Gardens. Along the way, he meets Maimie, a little girl who had an amazing fairy adventure just prior. This whole section of the book was delightful. I have heard that it has been extracted and printed on its own, and I think that was a good idea. Although it all did perfectly fit into the story of the soldier and David, it also works well on its own.

As to the soldier and David's mother, their distant relationship takes some getting used to. The soldier is very much a hard core male. He is rough around the edges, and at times he seems like he revels in being cruel. But if you read this book cover-to-cover, you soon learn that there is a kindness and humility hidden slightly to the side. He's a good man. His perceived cruelty has not so much bite as it might seem early on.

At the end of the day, this is a book about man and woman, man and boy, man and dog, and fairies. I know that's a lot to soak in, but it's all true. What's interesting is that this book is both famous and not famous all at one time. It's famous for being the prototype of Peter Pan, but nobody really knows about it. That's sad because... and I'm just being honest here... it's really quite good. I'm a bit stunned at how good it really is. I'm actually rather sad that it's over.

I think that perhaps this book might just be considered boring and uninteresting if not for the Peter Pan chapters, but I kind of like it with all the other things. On the whole, "The Little White Bird" is a complete and engaging experience about what make humans so wonderful. I do recommend it. If you do choose to read it, give it some time. The author's style takes a while to get used to, but it will be worth it in the end. I am very glad I gave this book the time of day.

This blog was written on March 17, 2022.

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