Miss Peregrin’s Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrin’s Home for Peculiar Children

By Ransom Riggs

Quirk Books, 2011. 352 pages. Mystery.

ISBN: 9781594744761

Reading/Interest Level: 14+

Curriculum ties: Photography

Booktalk Ideas: Old is interesting too!: Show a couple of the photographs and explain about the children in them, then show many of the other photographs in the book and explain that each picture is of a unique character that all live together in an orphanage.

Challenge Issues: Violence, language

Challenge Response: First Defense File

Reader’s Annotation:

After a terrible family tragedy a boy travels to an abandoned orphanage on a Welsh island, only to discover that it wasn’t an ordinary orphanage. Through vintage photographs the children at Miss Peregrin’s home are shown to be quite out of the ordinary.

Plot Summary:

As a young boy, Jacob loved to hear his grandfather’s stories about monsters and children with peculiar abilities. He even had photographs of the strange children! As he grew older, Jacob stopped believing in his grandfather’s stories and his grandfather stopped telling them.

That is, until old age started twisting the grandfather’s mind and he began raving about monsters being after him. One night Jacob’s grandfather disappears and he is found badly hurt in the forest. The police conclude it was done by wild animals, but Jacob saw one of the monsters his grandfather had described. No one else saw it.

To investigate further, Jacob convinces his parents to visit the island his grandfather lived on while he was in an orphanage. At first the orphanage seems as he expected. Old, broken, and moldy. It was bombed during WWII and all the children died, or so Jacob had been told. So he’s surprised when he finds a group of children that instantly run away from him. When Jacob finally finds out what’s going on, he realizes he’s traveled into the past and discovered a home full of the peculiar children his grandfather always talked about. But the monsters that got Jacob’s grandfather are on the move, and no one is safe.

Critical Evaluation:

By far one of the best and most unique parts about this book are the vintage photographs scattered throughout. Each photo highlights one of the characters in the story, and use old photography effects such as double exposure and optical illusion to enhance the story. Even the cover of the book, a black and white photo showing a young girl who appears to be levitating, indicates the unique nature of the book’s contents.

The unique photographs lend themselves to the creation of very unique characters, which Riggs does brilliantly. His characters come from all walks of life but ended up at Miss Peregrine’s home because they are peculiar in one way or another. It’s almost like a young, old fashioned version of the X-Men.

The main setting once Jacob goes back in time is a single day, September 3, 1940, that is repeated continuously. As the children take Jacob through the town and explore the general are, the reader gets to see what’s happening in a variety of places all at the same time. In fact, because it’s such a unique situation, one particular child has taken up the project of recording the happenings of every single person in that town, for that one day. The only record of its kind that will ever exist, and he will be the creator.

Overall the story has a very unique idea and is excellently done. The vintage photographs really add to the atmosphere and character development, making this a must read.

About the Author:

Ransom Riggs grew up in Florida, where he spent his formative years making silly movies with his friends in their various backyards, snorkeling, and complaining about the heat. He studied English at Kenyon College and film at the University of Southern California. He lives in Los Angeles.

He makes films you can watch on his YouTube page: www.youtube.com/ransriggs.

He enjoys traveling to exotic lands and complaining about the heat. He would like to thank you for reading this short biography.

-from Amazon.com author page-

Justification of Selection:

This was listed as a YALSA Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults book, and is a very engaging book with bits of mystery, horror, and suspense. It’s also been made into a graphic novel, and plans to turn it into a movie within the next couple years. It’s appealing to a variety of audiences and ages.