The Little White Bird; Or, Adventures in Kensington Gardens

About this book

A lonely, whimsical old bachelor living near Kensington Gardens in London befriends a small boy, David, and tells him stories as they walk in the park. The most famous of them explains how babies were once birds, and how one of them, Peter Pan, only a week old, flew out of his nursery window back to Kensington Gardens, where he lives on an island with the birds and the fairies, can never grow up and can never go home again.

Context and significance

J. M. Barrie published the book in 1902; it was the first appearance of Peter Pan, two years before the play, and its Peter Pan chapters were later published on their own as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Read the later Peter Pan.

About the author