The Little White Bird - Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

Following the highly successful debut of the play about Peter Pan in 1904, Barrie's publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, extracted chapters 13–18 of The Little White Bird and republished them in 1906 under the title Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, with the addition of illustrations by Arthur Rackham. The text of this version is almost identical to those chapters, with minor differences appearing on only 9 of the original pages. This edition was published as a book for children, many of whom had experienced Peter Pan's exploits in the successful stage play.

Although sometimes described as a prelude or (less correctly) prequel to the play and novel about Peter Pan, there are inconsistencies between the two. Most significant is the character of Peter Pan himself, who is said to be only seven days old, and there isn't "the slightest chance of his ever having "; in the later work his physical age is never specified, except that he has his baby teeth and is portrayed as if he were school age.