When it comes to adapting Barrie’s story of a fantastic
land where children never grow up, the aspect that just about everyone stumbles
on is the portrayal of his Native American characters, who even in the original
story suffer from the influences of colonialism and racism. Jodi Anderson
attempts to not only tackle a new vision of Neverland’s native residents but
put them in the spotlight as a culture and a collage of diverse characters.
That doesn’t spare her from some deserved criticism of the stereotypes and
caricatures she employs, as better dissected by Debbie Reese in her review of
the book. Forgive my willingness to leave the problematic elements to the
scrutiny of critics with a better grasp of the prevailing racial issues in
Western literature that Tiger Lily reflects.
I’ve honestly struggled to post this review out of fear that I wasn’t giving
the Native American portrayals their due analysis, as my own knowledge on the
subject is limited. For anyone interested, you can read Reese’s article here,
and I recommend you do. I’ll mostly stick to assessing the story elements on
the whole.
