Want a Magical Book Packed with a Positive Message?

Let’s talk about the book Dust by Kara Swanson and why I highly recommend it.

If you love Peter Pan and clean fantasy, this book is for you.

The moment I saw the book cover, I wanted to know more. There’s flying people, golden dust and London in the background. Yes, the cover sold me. I got the book and started reading. Here are a few things I noticed:

• It’s clean teen.
• It feels real and has tough situations that made me think deeper about how I view others and how I use my words.
• Everyone you’d expect from a Peter Pan story gets weaved into the plot. It also has a mystery hanging over the chapters. What happened to Claire’s brother and what happened to Neverland?

The story is told in two point of views. The first is Claire’s. She’s a girl from LA who was passed from one foster house to another. She also has a strange condition she’s always trying to hide. Her brother Connor went missing, and she’ll do anything to get him back.

Then there’s Peter Pan. He’s growing up. He needs to figure out a way to get back to Neverland and save it. He needs Claire to save his magical home.

It’s fun to get in Peter’s head and to see his quirky behavior. The author does an excellent job showing Peter’s dilemma and the consequences of childish thinking.  

If you enjoy Dust, the next book, Shadow, comes out July 2021!

What excites you most about a Peter Pan retelling?

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Storyteller Squad: What inspired you to write Dust? 

Kara: Wanting to craft a Peter Pan retelling that captured the charm and nuances and likeability of the original Peter we all know and love, while expanding on and diving even deeper into his mythos as a character. I also wanted to set his character arc against that of a girl who represents us — those of us who maybe had to grow up too quickly and are perhaps a tad cynical, but nonetheless wish for a spark of magic to ignite our world. 🙂

Storyteller Squad: What was your favorite scene to write? 

Kara: Hmmm hard to say…probably the scene in the garden with the pixies! Or possibly the scenes on Big Ben toward the end 🙂

Storyteller Squad: Do you have any top-secret new projects we can hear about? 

Kara: I have an idea for a four-book series in the works, but I’m not sure when the time will be right for that, so we’ll see where the wind blows. I always have ideas brewing 🙂

If you’d like to see what adventures Kara weaves next, follow her on:

Facebook / Website / Twitter / Instagram / Pinterest

We at the Storyteller Squad talk about clean teen books each Friday. Check out other books here. The Storyteller Squad is going to expand to focus more on connecting clean teen readers to Christian authors. We’ll provide fun resources and lead a book club. Our April book will be announced soon.

Have you read Dust? How well do you remember it? Take a short quiz here.