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Reference Question of the Week – 10/30/11

   November 5th, 2011 Brian Herzog

Peter Pan statue in Kensington GardensDue to the power outage, this has been an odd week. The library didn't get everything restored (power, heat, and internet access) until Thursday, and since many peoples' homes were still without power, it was crazy at the library. Which made this question fit right in.

Remember the patron who asked if Donna and Eric from "That 70's Show" got married, and if SpongeBob likes Sandy? Well, Thursday he called in and asked,

Do you know how Peter Pan and Tinker Bell first met?

I kind of laughed because as odd as this was, it actually is a literary question - although, while I was searching, the patron just kept recounting the various Peter Pan movie adaptations.

Anyway, from what could remember from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, when Peter was a baby he escaped from his parents by flying to Kensington Gardens, and ended up living there among the fairies. Our copy of Peter Pan wasn't on the shelf, and I couldn't find a conclusive answer online (because there are so many versions of the story).

I summarized everything I had found for the patron, saying that they might have met in Kensington Gardens, after Peter started living there and Tinker Bell liked him because he was "lost." I don't like giving unsourced non-authoritative guesses as answers, but I don't know if there is an answer for this. The patron seemed happy though, and hung up.

It's been awhile since I've read Peter Pan - now I have to read it again and see if there's any reference to how they met.



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