Approaching Neverland: A Memoir of Epic Tragedy & Happily Ever After

Peggy Kennedy
iUniverse (2009)
ISBN 9781440126130
Reviewed by Angela Henley for Reader Views (7/09)


Reading “Approaching Neverland” was enlightening for me as a social worker and as a person.  This story begins in the 60s where mental illness and family problems, just “were not talked about” to others, it was considered “taboo.”  It is my belief that during this time period many true stories were written under the guise of fiction to avoid the stigmatism of “airing your family’s laundry.”  It is with some reservation that I say that the same is not true today.

Our society is just coming to realizing the therapeutic nature of the creative arts, which includes the process of life journaling through writing, photographs and drawings.  This process is used frequently by social workers in the field of foster care and adoption as a tool to help the children and adults affected by these events to sort out, categorize and accept the challenges that life has presented to them.  This tool often bridges the troubled pasts of individuals to the present with the hope of a better and less chaotic future.  It is a tool that used for individual growth and not very often shared.  The sharing of such information helps professionals understand the challenges that they have not experienced themselves more deeply and intimately.  This intimate book could be used in academia to further the knowledge of counselors and social workers working with similar situations.

Peggy Kennedy introduces us to her nuclear and her extended family members in such a manner that one finds them endearing.  The reader ultimately has the same type of unconditional love for the family that the family members have and grow to have for each other.  It is a book of understanding and ultimately forgiveness on many different levels.  The life and death(s) that are chronicled in this book are revealed, revered and respected by the author.

The timely title “Approaching Neverland” is relevant in many ways. The mental illness that afflicted the mother needed to be understood, chronicled, journaled and rectified in the mind of the child(ren). The mother’s mental illness also afflicted the children who had to grow despite the mother’s wishes to not allow her children the opportunity to grow old both literally and figuratively.   Even in our modern world where bi-polar is often spoken about and mental illnesses are more “accepted” the affects of the illnesses are not tolerated nor forgiven most of the time by society or the children that it ultimately affects.  Many times families are dismantled, torn apart and new structures are put in place to help the children lead more productive and “normal” lives.   Even through many years of education and studying it was only in “Neverland” that I would believe that these children could live “happily ever after” and realize that through it all they had actually had a “Wonderful Mother.” 

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