J. M. Barrie tells the first adventures of Peter Pan in the form of a fairy story, settles the first questions of children in regard to their advent into the world, by picturing a pre-existence on an island in fairyland. Barrie's observation of life is so thoroughly that of the artist that there is about ten times as much imagery in the book as in the average child's story. The illustrations by Arthur Rackham are no less genuinely artistic.