There's some great stuff here, and some awkwardness. I really liked the balance of the new story about a new Wendy, and the old one about Peter Pan - a lot more than I expected to, if truth be told. It's certainly a distinctive mix, and the modern tale doesn't suffer in comparison with the Barrie. I think the awkwardness is with the presentation - certainly the artwork can be wonderful, especially when it brings in colours in subtle places, or ramps them up for full splash pages as opposed to the black and white of the regular art. But it doesn't make for clarity of character or who is speaking at times. With so much going on about what is fantasy and what reality, what is old and what is new, we needed more concise and simple ways to work out what we were looking at. Still, it's commendably brave even when it's not a perfect success.

4 stars - A good retelling of Peter Pan...of sorts. It's not the true story of Pan but is a part of it with a different ending. A little dark, but interesting and the drawings are GORGEOUS.

This is my first graphic novel, so it took me a little bit to get into the groove, but once I did, I really started to see this story coming together.

Wendy had been in an accident with both her brothers in the car. One brother is so traumatized, that he becomes mute, while the other is assumed dead. Since his body was not found, With no body found and Wendy believing she saw her brother "fly" away, she sets out on a mission to find him.

First things first, the illustrations were very beautiful, and I loved the deliberate use of color. Both the author and illustrator did a wonderful job of keeping me guessing. Is Wendy suffering from PTSD? Is she in denial? Or was her brother really wished away to another dimension? You really are not sure until the very end if this is fantasy or reality.

What I was sure about, was the pain Wendy was suffering from. She was carrying so much worry and grief related to the accident. I was quite amazed at how well these feelings of loss and helplessness were conveyed with so little text and so few pages.

I also loved the use and placement of the quotes from Peter Pan. Where they appeared and which pictures they accompanied really made them have a meaning that was specific to this tale.

Overall: A beautifully illustrated tale of grief and loss, which left me with with shiny eyes.

the author uses the familiar story of Peter and Wendy and modernizes it into a tale of coping with grief, coming of age and learning to accept loss and let it go. Very beautifully done.

This short graphic novel offers a modern take on the age old classic tale of Peter Pan and Neverland. The story takes place after Wendy and her two younger brothers are in a car accident. The authorities say the crash was fatal for Wendy's youngest brother Michael, but she insists she saw him disappear into the clouds as if he was flying away. No body is discovered and Wendy can't shake the idea that what she saw was real; that Michael isn't dead but alive in a place called Neverland.

The Wendy Project is a cute retelling with simply breathtaking illustrations. It's a little bittersweet, yet still leaves you with a smile in the end.

Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this review opportunity.

The illustrations for this graphic novel are beautiful. I loved how the colors were worked into the story at just the right time. The story was a Peter Pan retelling in a more modern day setting. Wendy is driving with her two brothers in the car when she crashes into the lake. I thought the story told of a horrible loss but am kinda bothered on how Wendy behaved and dealt with her brother's death/disappearance. I mean even if Michael was taken off by Peter Pan, he lost his memory of his past life with his family and Wendy would never see him again. Not to mention what happened at the very end when his Mother screams out... His body washed ashore fully intact. Creepy to say the very least.

This is beautifully illustrated and told. The sketchy art style and the use of watercolor are stunning and bring a real magic to it, and the concept that this is a visual diary kept by Wendy [Darling] is a really imaginative, enjoyable retelling of the original; and what's more, what this does so well is that it takes on a heavy sort of subject matter and places it into a (mostly) light-hearted story, and manages an amazing job of balancing that through much of the work. It never feels too whimsical or flippant in regard to Michael's death and it also never feels like it's excessively weighing down the Pan story with doom and gloom.

The first half had me completely enthralled. I adored the use of color to signify a sort of magic to things, and I loved the included quotes. I especially loved how Wendy was told: she's both true to the original, and a stronger more modern iteration.

The pacing once she gets to "Neverland," though, starts to feel rushed. It pulls you back out of the story, and things feel a little off the beat. Even the art began to struggle a little (or I was pulled out of the story enough that I started to nit-pick): frames were less beautifully detailed, expressions and figures grew somewhat awkward.

The very ending, when she returns to "reality," was what felt the most awkward. I think just another 2-3 pages would've rounded it out and made it feel whole: Wendy really needed more of a closing-statement-style monologue at the end. Rather than feeling like she had answers, or closure, or even acceptance that it would be a mystery or a secret: none of that is stated, and the ending feels a little like the story died rather than ended.

That being said, my qualms with the second half don't bring this down to any less than 4 stars. It's beautifully rendered, and it's absolutely lovely. It's a wonderful and meaningful take on a classic: it doesn't exist just for the hell of it, rather it takes something we know and love and uses it as a vehicle to say something important.

A nice modern psychological twist to the Peter Pan story. Very haunting. Hard to know what is real and what is fantasy.

This is the first graphic novel I've ever read so I wasn't really sure what to expect. The book is a lovely rendition of Peter Pan and it so beautifully illustrated. Very impressed for my first foray into graphic novels

This is so beautiful and sweet and sad. Gorgeous artwork and a bittersweet story.

Wendy and her brothers are in a car crash, and Wendy swears she saw her youngest brother Michael flying off with Peter Pan, but no one believes her. She gets in trouble at school, and sort of connects with a weird guy named Peter. He's enigmatic and unreliable, only interested in having fun, but Wendy believes he could lead her to her brother. Wendy's therapist tells her to draw in a journal, and she begins to document the things she sees that makes her believe her brother is alive somewhere in Neverland. Wendy's family is grieving, Wendy can barely sort through fact or fiction, and it's Wendy's other brother, John, who suffers the most. Can they find their way to Neverland and bring Michael back? or is he really dead?

This little book broke my heart in 96 pages. It's a surprisingly full story for such a short one. I love how such dark subjects like grief, the nature of reality, guilt, anger, and desire are all dealt with so gently and yet with a raw and honest quality. Wendy's reality is woven so delicately together with the story of Peter Pan, including characters, scenes, dialogue, and magic from the original Peter Pan story.

Wendy has such an original voice! Her character is immediately lovable and relatable, because she's broken and rebellious and full of faith. I think what throws the story forward is Wendy's forceful desperation to KNOW. I'm so in awe of the brilliant writing that created this deep and complex character!

The artwork is indescribably beautiful, and the way that the colors show the alternate reality that Wendy sees, while the world of other people remains in black and white... simply genius. I'm so delighted with every page! I just had to stop and stare at some of the illustrations for a little minute and drink it in.

Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

This is a fantastic graphic novel. The color-work is beautiful and the story is heart wrenching. I highly recommend this one.

Ok... first of all a Peter Pan retelling in Graphic novel format!?! Pure Gold! The second I saw this on Netgalley I had to request it, and you have to know their were a lot of girlish screams involved upon being approved.

This Graphic novel is extremely gorgeous! The artwork is beautiful with a gray-scale for the real world and a bright watercolor deliciousness for how Wendy herself starts to see it. I loved the contrast of color and light and dark mixed together and told a story all of its own. It was striking to see who brightly Pan's characters were painted and how beautifully it all went together. The artwork was an A++!

The story itself honestly got to me. Wendy's fight with her family and everyone else that her baby brother was still alive tugged at my heart. In many ways I wanted more of the drama and the tragedy of that sort of loss and even more backlash at Wendy's conviction that her brother is alive. In fact I wanted more of this story in general at 92 pages it is far too short for a book this good. I wanted to live in it longer and to really bask in all the Neverland glory!

All and all this story is glorious and the lost girl of my heart shines with this books existance. All I can say is that "The Wendy Project" is stunning and I will be wanting more of it and more from Osborne for a very long time.

I'm partial to Peter Pan and Peter Pan retellings (perhaps because I was named after one of characters?), so I was delighted to read "The Wendy Project." Here, Wendy and her brothers are in modern times. Wendy accidentally drives into a lake, and her brother Michael's body is never found. Wendy's not convinced that Michael's really gone, though - and it turns out that others feel the same way.

I love the way Neverland was all bright colors, and the present day (cold reality) was black and grays. The illustrations themselves were also delightful. I thought the graphic novel format was a wonderful way to portray this story.

Heartbreakingly lovely modern-day take on the Peter Pan/Neverland story. I thought I'd read a little and then go to bed, but I couldn't stop once I'd started. The illustrations perfectly captured the disconnect between real and fantasy along with the spillover.

Melissa' Jane Osborne's <i>The Wendy Project</i> is a beautiful graphic novel interpretation of <i>Peter Pan</i>. The story is told from the point of view of 16 year old Wendy who is behind the wheel when a car accident kills her youngest brother (Michael). The graphic novel follows Wendy's journey of grief as she comes to terms with her brother's death. It's a short graphic novel, but the story is interesting, and accompanying artwork, which switches from black and white to stunning watercolor brings the story to life. This would be a great book for a child or young adult dealing with grief.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an e-copy of this work in exchange for an honest review.

Una notte di primavera la macchina guidata da Wendy, sedici anni, vola nel lago.

Ne riemergono lei e il fratello John, mentre il piccolo Michael è sparito.

Ma Wendy lo sa, lo ha visto: un ragazzo vestito di verde lo ha portato via in volo, verso la seconda stella a destra.

Nessuno le dà retta, non i suoi genitori, non la psicologa che le chiede di parlare per immagini, affidandole un quaderno.

E nel fondersi di fantasia e realtà, verità e allucinazione, Wendy dovrà trovare la forza di andare avanti.

Delicata storia sul lutto e il senso di colpa tracciata attraverso tavole dai colori acquerellati riprende e sfrutta con originalità la figura di Peter Pan e i suoi comprimari, ricordandone il ruolo originale: colui che accompagna i bambini dopo la morte, perché non abbiano paura.

A beautiful reimagining of Peter Pan. So full of emotion. And those splashes of color, just wow. I definitely want to get a hard copy for my book shelf.

What happens if you take the old story of Peter Pan and put a modern spin on it.

This story is the story of Wendy and how her brother was taken away by Peter Pan.

Or is it the story of how she lost her brother in a car accident, and they never found her brother's body, and she can't accept it.

You can read it either way. If you read it with the idea that this other world, the colorful world, is real, I think it makes for a much more interesting story than if you read it as she is crazy, and this is all in her head.

The fantasy world, the Peter Pan world, is very colorful, and the real is in dull tones. It is beautifully illustrated, and a quick read.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Retellings are beyond popular - and I am a particular fan of them. Some involve the fantasy world colliding with the real world (as in Alice in Wonderland retellings where in she is psychotic - or at least perceived as psychotic). Peter Pan in particular is popular for retellings. It is also popular for theories - one prevalent one being that the lost boys are all dead and Peter is their guardian angel.

The Wendy Project plays into these ideas. We follow Wendy's point of view through her journal/sketchbook after a devastating accident where-in her brother dies - though Wendy believes him alive, and that he has simply been taken away. We see her coping with this lose and these ideas - both her high school life and ideas of Neverland in her art, colors used to differentiate reality and fantasy, and we are generally left as unsure as Wendy is.

It is well written, and the artwork is gorgeous. I particularly liked the interspersing of Peter Pan quotes from JM Barrie.

My only issue is that its quite short - and so didn't go into the depth that it had the potential to, and feels quite abrupt at the end.

But overall, I really enjoyed it.

** spoiler alert ** What attracted me originally to this graphic novel was the beautiful cover. I was walking down the aisle at a book conference and the colors just grabbed me. Throughout the book Veronica Fish uses color--bright vivid color such as you see on the cover--sparingly to illustrate the "real world" (in monochromatic grays, blacks and white) versus the world that when Wendy needs to escape from her grief. Its telling that when the story shifts to Neverland (later on) its a complete explosion of colors and when we come back to the real world those colors slowly introduce themselves into the comic as Wendy learns to accept her choices.

I felt for Wendy and I wondered how much was truly happening and how much was her need for closure. Sometimes, especially when grief is strong and the world seems so...hostile, its easy to believe something so fantastical is preferable. And the guilt she carried...

I've never made secret my intense dislike of Peter Pan. Finding out Barrie meant him to be the actual villain of the book originally made my day because he's always, always, come off that way to me (in the actual book, many versions of him paint him less creepy/malevolent and more careless/oblivious/selfish). Here...he's not the problem. Not really. Oh he's not helpful, but he does make several good points to Wendy that she doesn't want to believe and he does help her in the end.

This story is very much a handbook of what happens when you become so wrapped up in something it isolates you. Several times throughout Wendy neglects to think of the consequences of her actions in an effort to prove her belief right. She pushes people away and behaves self destructively. When she does realize how her actions have maybe not been the best for her brother John, she attempts to pull away...only to give in and go deeper.

At times the book was confusing - it never really answers whether this is all a delusion to comfort herself or if it really happens. There's some high school drama that gets in the way a little and her parents come off not very sympathetic for most of the book. As we see things from Wendy's point of view, their actions come off cold and abrupt, with little nuance into their own feelings until nearer the end when Wendy starts to recognize how much she's ignored.