The Neverland Thieves by Katie and Kevin Tsang – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: hospital, friendship, magic, trust, honesty.
Children’s book title: The Neverland Thieves.
Children’s authors: Katie and Kevin Tsang.
Genre: Children’s fiction.
Published by: Simon and Schuster Children’s UK.
ISBN: 9781398563629.
Recommended for children aged: 8+.
First published: Hardback September 2026.
This children’s book is ideal for: reading as a class or for confident readers in the suggested age range.
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Our review:
Tom is a patient at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and he doesn’t like being there at all. He knows he is sick and that the treatment is what will make him better, but he wants to be anywhere but in his room, with just nurses and doctors for company. Sometimes his best friend, Felix, comes to visit, but it’s hard because he can go home afterwards and play football with their mates. In fact, he can do pretty much anything he wants!
Although Tom doesn’t realise it, Felix and a girl he has just met, Daisy, have both had similar strange dreams to the ones he’s been having. When the three of them are befriended by a golden dragon and a golden bat, things begin to get really strange! Apparently, a place called Neverland needs them just as much as they need it, not that they had any idea it did. Suddenly, they can fly, and before they know it, they are following the world-famous directions to get to an island where anything and everything is possible!
Neverland, however, is not a happy place. There is a thief or thieves at work. People’s most precious items are disappearing and, so far, no one has found any of the missing items.
Gradually, by being quite shifty themselves, Tom, Felix and Daisy begin to understand what is happening, but no one on the island is strong enough to defeat the thief alone, and so they will have to work together so that Neverland will go back to how it used to be. Unfortunately, their foe is very powerful and seems to be getting stronger all the time! Can they save Neverland, as well as perhaps start to understand what they are learning about themselves while they are there? Otherwise, it’s not going to be just them who will suffer!
Our verdict:
The magic of the original book is replicated here in The Neverland Thieves, but in a more modern way. Although the authors don’t specify what is wrong with Tom, the clues, as they say, are there! Felix is shown to be a loyal friend who is also suffering because his best friend is dangerously ill, and he doesn’t really know how to deal with that. Daisy, meanwhile, is a lonely child whose mother works long hours as a doctor and spends very little time with her daughter.
The trip to Neverland and the dangers they face there all seem to be in keeping with the iconic original, and although Peter Pan and Captain Hook are conspicuous by their absence, it is clear that everything which now happens on Neverland has a strong link to the past. There is a chilling aspect to the bad guy and his army, who are determined to take over the island, but the way the three children finally work out what is happening and how they can get things back to normal is beautifully written, and the solutions are not immediately obvious.
There is a cliffhanger of sorts, as the three children realise there is still vital work to be done to finally remove all the danger from an island they have become very fond of, and, as this is labelled Book 01 in a new series, there are obviously more adventures and dangers waiting out there for them to deal with.
Teaching points and book club discussion ideas:
- Peter Pan is a world-famous fictional character. Did it matter to you that he isn’t in this book?
- The normal idea of pirates is that they are loud and dangerous, and mermaids are sweet and friendly. How do the changes make you feel about both groups of people in this new book?
- The three children learnt a lot about themselves while they were in Neverland. Who do you think will notice the differences most once they are back in London?
- If you could fly off somewhere for an adventure, with very little time passing at home, where would you go? Would you choose somewhere real or a location from a book or film?
- The children were able to fight with pirates, swim with mermaids and fly on a dragon’s back! Which of these would you choose to do?
Many thanks to Simon and Schuster Children’s UK for the review copy.
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