Peter and the Starcatchers, written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, is the prequel to the Peter Pan story. It is the story of Peter and his friends and their magical adventure that takes Peter from a mundane orphan boy from England to an immortal flying boy on the magical island of Never Land.

Peter and his group of friends from St. Norbert's Home for Wayward Boys are taken to a the ship Never Land. They will call this ship home for the next month and a half or so, until they reach their ultimate destination in Rundoon to be servants to the evil King Zarboff the Third. However, things do not go as has been planned for the orphan boys and the crew of the Never Land. The most feared pirate to ever have sailed the seas, Black Stache, has caught wind of a great treasure aboard the Never Land's sister ship, the Wasp. Black Stache, who will later become Captain Hook, leads his band of pirates to do battle with the crew of the Wasp only to find that they have been tricked! The real treasure is onboard the Never Land.

There are only two people on the Never Land that know about the treasure on board. William Slank, the first mate, who is also secretly a servant of the evil King Zarboff, ordered the trunk put on the Never Land. Molly Aster is the daughter of Leonard Aster, the ambassador of the Queen to King Zarboff. Her father was on the Wasp to protect the Starstuff, however, Molly is on board the Never Land. She realizes that the trunks have been swapped, but can not stop either Slank or Black Stache alone. She recruites Peter to help her and tells him all about the Starcatchers. They are a group of people dedicated to stopping the power of the Starstuff from being used for evil.

The Wasp, now crewed by pirates and captained by Black Stache, turns around to go after the Never Land. Black Stache and his first mate Smee plan to trick the crew of the Never Land by flying the British colors and wearing the British naval uniforms. When they approach the Never Land, the pirates are easily able to overtake the crew, and take over the other ship. Peter and Molly manage to dump the trunk into the ocean, and jump overboard during the fighting and the storm. After the storm, everyone, including the trunk, wash ashore on an island inhabited with hostile natives and a giant crocodile.

On the island, everyone is split into different groups. Peter and Molly are together, and the other boys are with a sailor named Alf. The pirates are together, and Slank and Little Richard from the Never Land are by themselves. Alf and the boys, who do not know about the trunk, are simply trying to survive. All of the other groups are trying to find the trunk. After being captured by the natives, and almost fed to the giant crocodile, Alf and the boys, along with Peter, set out to find Molly and the trunk.

All of the groups find the trunk within a very short time of each other. Slank and Little Richard first get the trunk. However, they have to battle the newly formed Mermaids in order to get it. Peter stumbles upon the lead mermaid, and uses some Starstuff to heal her. Slank and Richard sneak up on Peter and beat him unconscious, leaving him face down to drown. After Slank gets the trunk from the mermaids, Black Stache steals it from them. Black Stache does not know about the mermaids, however, and quickly loses it again. Slank and Little Richard use some of the Starstuff to fly the longboat to the trunk, and get their hands on it once more. Just then, Molly, Alf, and James attack Slank and Richard. Slank and Richard get the upper hand, but before Slank can kill Molly, he hears Peter calling out to him. There, on a rock, surrounded by Mermaids, is Peter. Peter he has the trunk.

Peter agrees to trade the trunk to Slank for the lives of all of his friends. Slank takes the trunk, but leaves the boys and Alf behind. Slank does not intend to honor their agreement, as he'd rather take Molly to Zarboff. Lukily, Peter played a trick as well. He moved the Starstuff out of the trunk before giving it to Slank. The natives attack just then, and go for the trunk as well. As soon as Fighting Prawn and Peter are alone on the boat, Black Stache makes his attack on them. Peter manages to defeat Black Stache, cutting off his hand. He saves Fighting Prawn's life, which endears him to the native and earns Fighting Prawn's help. Molly's father arrives with more Starcatchers to transfer the Starstuff safely, and take them all home. Peter decides to stay on the island. He has learned that his exposure to the Starstuff has transformed him so that he will not age and can fly. His fellow orphans decide to stay with him and the Starcatchers leave after a tearful goodbye.