Young Adult Literature - Fantastic Fiction Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

 Young Adult Literature - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

 

Bibliography

Riggs, Ransom. (2011). Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children.  Quirk Books: Pennsylvania.  ISBN: 978-1594744761

Plot Summary

Jacob is a teenager from a prosperous family who lives in Florida.  Although he tends to be a loner, he is close to his grandfather, Abe Portman.  Young Jacob hears several fantastic tales from Abe, but even though he believed them to be untrue, he found them to be entertaining and occasionally frightful.  Jacob gets a troubling call from his grandfather one terrible night, which prompts Jacob to go check on him.  Jacob tragically discovers his grandfather's body in the woods behind his home, and there he meets a monster that nobody else can believe or see.  As a result of this incident, Jacob embarks on a fantastical quest that brings him to Wales in search of Miss Peregrine's Orphanage Home.  After locating the house, he realizes the stories his grandfather told him were true.

Critical Analysis

When he authored Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs produced a really extraordinary fantasy book.  Abe Portman, the grandpa in the novel, and his grandson Jacob are introduced as having a loving and tight relationship.  Abe enjoys telling Jacob about the misadventures he had as a child and even shows Jacob numerous photographs from the book.  Although they had a tight relationship and Jacob cherished their time together, the stories seem too extravagant and unreal.  In the course of the story, Jacob discovers his grandfather's body in the woods behind his house, which unfortunately begins an amazing journey.  Jacob is a troubled teen who never felt like he belonged with the people in his life.  Whenever he travels with his father, Jacob's life is significantly altered as he sets out to find the Welsh orphanage where his grandfather was raised. He discovers the enigmatic orphanage and a group of odd individuals with whom he can identify, realizing that he wasn't a loner after all.  In a series of events that grabbed my interest and made me want to keep reading, he learns that his grandfather shared a particular ability with the other kids and the headmistress at the orphanage.  Jacob's character develops from that of a selfish teenager to that of a family-oriented, compassionate young man who emerges as an unexpected hero when he finds he has inherited his grandfather's power.  The remaining characters were all so distinctive, yet Riggs manages to make them all appear enduring and believable.  His account of the little Wales Island seems to His depiction of the tiny island in Wales strikes me as lovely at times and secretive and gloomy at others.  I enjoyed getting to know each of the odd kids since they each added something unique to the group home.  The "monsters" in the story were menacing, frightening, and gloomy.  Riggs enhanced the fun of this story by including some black and white photographs of the odd children and other significant moments.  This fantasy book, the first in a series, was incredibly good to me, although it is recommended for ages 14 years or older.

Review Excerpts

“A tense, moving, and wondrously strange first novel. The photographs and text work together brilliantly to create an unforgettable story.”—John Green, New York Times best-selling author of Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns

 

“Readers searching for the next Harry Potter may want to visit Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.”—CNN

“Riggs deftly moves between fantasy and reality, prose and photography to create an enchanting and at times positively terrifying story.”—Associated Press

“I read all of the Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children books and I loved them.”—Florence of Florence + The Machine

“[A] thrilling, Tim Burton-esque tale with haunting photographs.”—USA Today Pop Candy

“With its X-Men: First Class-meets-time-travel story line, David Lynchian imagery, and rich, eerie detail, it’s no wonder Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children has been snapped up by Twentieth Century Fox. B+”—Entertainment Weekly

“Peculiar’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. Riggs’ chilling, wondrous novel is already headed to the movies.”—People

“You'll love it if you want a good thriller for the summer. It's a mystery, and you'll race to solve it before Jacob figures it out for himself.”—Seventeen

“Delightfully weird.”—Good Housekeeping

“One of the coolest, creepiest YA books.”—PopSugar

Connections

*A great story to discuss that everyone is different but we all have something to contribute to the group.

*Other topics 

• Family relationships
• Friendships
• Mental health
• Dealing with loss

 

Other books in the Trilogy

Riggs, Ransom. (2014). Hollow City (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children) .  Quirk Books: Pennsylvania.  ISBN: 978-1594746123.

Riggs, Ransom. (2015). Library of Souls: The Third Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children.  Quirk Books: Pennsylvania. ISBN: 978-1594747588.