Peter and the Starcatchers

Peter and the Starcatchers is a children's novel by the American writers Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, published in 2004 and illustrated by Greg Call. It reinterprets Peter Pan, who first appeared in J. M. Barrie's novel The Little White Bird.

Peter, James, Thomas, Prentiss and Tubby Ted are orphaned boys shipped out of nineteenth-century London aboard the Never Land, a ship in poor condition. While he is searching for food, Peter comes across a mysterious trunk and the girl guarding it, Molly Aster, and finds that she and her father, Leonard Aster, belong to a group called the Starcatchers.

The pirate Black Stache hears that a ship called the Wasp is carrying a trunk with a great treasure aboard, runs her down and boards her, and finds the trunk full of sand: the real one is on the Never Land, and it holds starstuff, dust of enormous power. What follows is the chase that leaves Peter, the boys, the trunk and its guardians on an island that appears on none of their charts. Four sequels followed, beginning with Peter and the Shadow Thieves.