Tiger Lily has long been a subject of interest for lovers of Neverland and Peter Pan. She’s brave, and fiesty, a nicer counterpart to the boy who will never grow up as she aims to be a wise chief like her father. Plus she’s more mischevious than the mini-adult Wendy. No wonder fans long for her to take the spotlight as a girl who can be a leader, an indigenous woman ignored by the white protagonist.
No more!
In this novel by indigenous author, Cherie Dimaline, readers get to enjoy Tiger Lily having a solo adventure where she faces off pirates in a race against time for a treasure that may or may not exist. And she better do it soon or else her best friend’s life will be forfeit.
But Tiger Lily doesn’t stumble upon this adventure by chance or in a game gone wrong. Actually, she seeks out this adventure in pursuit of a bigger question, whether or not she wants to grow up.
Dimaline adds special lore to the indigenous Neverlanders that they have the power to choose whether or not to grow up. It’s in the magic of Neverland that great dreams come true if you wish hard enough so if anyone in Tiger Lily’s community wishes to grow older from toddler to pre-teen or adolescent to young adult, they just have to have the desire in their heart and thus wake up older.
Tiger Lily has already gone through the change twice from baby to toddler and todler to 13, but after a wild bear attack, she starts considering that she may want to grow more. She doesn’t want to feel helpess and indecisive, unhelpful in a fight when her community needs her. Especially with the boastful Peter saving the day so easily while she froze up.
But it’s not an easy decision because even though she wants to be braver and more useful, she fears that it won’t be worth the cost.
Tiger Lily feels that becoming an adult is the first time that you’re losing something. When you go from baby to toddler and so on, life just gets better but becoming an adult feels sad because you’re losing your childhood. Tiger Lily fears that it will change her in a way that she’ll lose her friendship with the Lost Boys and Sashi as she takes on more responsibilty.
In fact, this quote says it best: “Magic. you lose your magic.”
Walking now, she saw all the color being sucked out of her days. Certainty would chase away adventure. Responsibility would chase away dreams. yes, she would be able to protect the village, like Peter had, but. . . ” (Dimaline 49)
So, after this incident, Tiger Lily decides to start a big job by herself and patrol for pirates. By facing them on her own, and possibly saving the day, she thinks she’ll become braver, take charge like an adult and it may help her make a decision on whether she wants to become one.
But her plans go awry as these plans go and Tiger Lily soon must enlist the help of her community and her friends of which Dimaline makes a delightful distinctive and fun dynamics. From Tiger Lily’s best friend, the sassy, fashionable fairy, Sashi to the distracted Lost Boys and her wise grear-grandmother.
Dimaline writes in her author’s note that Tiger Lily’s is the best guide to Neverland as her tribe is indigenous to the area and so it was fun to share her story.
But she also notes that the tribe’s traditions are not taken from a specific real life tribe, rather it is a mismash of recognizable tenets that several indigenous peoples share like co-habitation and respect for nature, recognizing they are caretakers of the land and have a responsibility to each other and the community first etc. If readers want to learn more, there’s plenty of stories by indigenous, First Nations, Inuit, Aboriginal, Metis, etc. around the world.
This inclusion of Tiger Lily’s origins adds to her character as it gives her a distinct sense of how she sees the world and her role in it, guides her actions and her motivations.
It is all very grounded in indigenous beliefs and Dimaline utilizes it through the elder’s speeches about cycles of change to parallel Tiger Lily’s journey.
However much she loves her community, it doesn’t make her infalliable to mistakes when facing off the dangerous pirate duo Jukes and Jolly. While ignorant and sometimes comedic, Dimaline makes it clear that Jukes is a greater danger than he appears to be and they show their villainous sides as they search for the ‘Andon’ behind Hook’s back in hopes that the treasure will make them powerful enough to walk Hook across the plank and take over the ship. Plus gold, lots of gold as that’s always the greatest pirate motivator.
Dimaline also has some nice deadpan lines as Tiger Lily and Sashi search for the Andon by asking the mermaids who get into several fights before being distracted by themselves- “Shared narcissism always distracts mermaids from their rifts.”
Tiger Lily’s interactions with the Lost Boys also had a sweet comedic undertone as they clearly view her as a cool older sister and vice versa even as she gets exasperated by their distractability and while she has limited interactions with Peter Pan (he generally has small page time so Tiger Lily can shine), he’s perfectly in-character as the bossy, boastful showboat he is.
As I briefly mentioned Sashi, I wanted to say again how much I enjoyed their friednship and readers will be happy to see Sashi as her own character being a mischevious speedster and fashionista rather than a Tinkerbell ripoff.
It’s a fun book, albeit very grounded, but the times when the Neverland magic does appear it is surreal and amazing with vivid imagery.
If I had any nitpick it would be that the internal monolgue can get repetitive. Oddly enough, it was more in a soothing way rather than annoying as Tiger Lily likes to give space to her thoughts and feelings. Also, it’s for younger readers than I so I’ll give it a pass.
But with all the focus on community, I feel like the tribe themselves were hallow since we only have Tiger Lily interact with her great-grandmother and a boy named Gee (whose only there for like 5 pages). Understandably, Dimaline is going to focus on the recognizable Neverland elements like pirates, fairies and Lost Boys but with so much emphasis placed on the importance of Tiger Lily’s community, I would have liked to see her interact with more of them like her parents, uncle, ‘little brothers and sisters’ who are only referenced in passing.
Also the Lost Boys are made up of three girls, Curly, Twin One and Two, and a boy named Nibs. As I understand the original J.M. Barrie had both so it can be an homage, but then why call it Lost Boys if three out of the four shown (there’s implied to be more hanging out with Peter Pan) identify as girls. Just call them Lost Children because they are directionless children who still miss their mothers.
Anyway, nitpicks aside, this was a fun adventure that gave Tiger Lily her due in becoming a girl in charge of herself and her decision, not losing her spirit as she takes on the perils of adulthood.
Rachel Reads & Reviews 
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