Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson talk in Provo of writing about Peter Pan with a humorous twist

PROVO — Author Ridley Pearson remembers reading his young daughter the story of Peter Pan when she stopped him on page five, placing her small hand across the pages.

"Dad," she asked. "How did Peter Pan meet Captain Hook in the first place?"

As Pearson contemplated her question, other questions bubbled up. Why does Peter never grow old? How does he detach himself from his shadow?

"That's its own book," he told her excitedly, "and daddy's going to write that book."

Pearson, a crime novelist, quickly pitched the idea to his friend and humor writer Dave Barry.

"You write booger jokes for a living, and I (write about) killing people," Pearson said, recounting the conversation to a group of excited fans at the Provo Library recently. "Maybe if we combined those we could make a fun, suspenseful book for kids."

And they did.

"Peter and The Starcatchers" quickly won over readers with its creative beginnings for the already-beloved story icons, like the pirate "Black Stache" who became "Captain Hook," the little orphan boy who learned to fly.

Now, several years later, Pearson and Barry are on book tour — which included Provo — to promote their newest book, this time a sequel to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan: "The Bridge to Never Land."

Set in modern-day Pittsburgh, brother and sister Sarah and Aidan discover a strange document that they eventually realize is a puzzle. As they begin to make sense of it, it leads them to England where they soon discover something they weren't supposed to and open a dark door that unleashes forbidden forces, Barry explained for those that weren't already clutching copies of the recently released book.

The siblings then turn to a physics professor at Princeton, ("We call him J.D. because we want him to be played in the movie by Johnny Depp," Barry said.) who helps them find a way to get to Never Land. Once there, they have to find Peter Pan and convince him to help them sort out the mess.

"It was a fascinating process," Barry said of writing "Peter and The Starcatchers." "I've never written a book with anybody else before, and outlining was a concept I was unfamiliar with, but Ridley feels it's a good idea to know what the book is going to say before you write it. I've written countless things that I had no idea what they said even after I wrote them."