Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

 

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Author: Ransom Riggs

Publication Date: 2011

ISBN #: 1594744769

Number of Pages: 352

Trend: Trend: Horror, Mystery, Children with Abilities

Publisher: Quirk Books

Riggs, R. (2011). Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books

Summary: As a young child Jacob had always been captivated by his grandfather's stories of a strange orphanage on a mysterious island where the children could do impossible things like float, or summon fire out of nowhere. As Jacob became older he stopped believe his grandfather's eccentric tales until one night when he saw some sort of monster lurking in the night after the grisly murder of his grandfather. Now Jacob is obsessed with discovering the truth and the only way to do so is to visit the island and find the old orphanage. Jacob never thought that he would discover that the children would still be there, trapped in time.

Curricular connections: This book, though it takes place in modern-esque day, has its roots in WWII. It would be an interesting look at how the war affected different parts of the world.  As for inside the library I think that the cover of the book really speaks for itself, but I would certainly put it on display with other books of its nature.

Review Sources: Laurel Bliss of  Library Journal states, “[Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is  original work that defies categorization” (2011). Bliss  states that both adult and YA audiences would be able to appreciate the quirkiness of the fantasy children. Michael Cart of Booklist points out that “Riggs' debut uses the framework of a horror novel to tell a more far-reaching tale with symbolic overtones of the Holocaust,” but criticizes the author's writing stating, “it does not always match his ambition--his pacing is particularly uneven.” Though both reviews rave about the vintage photos that come in the books, making the whole experience of the more memorable.

Personal response:  I was sucked into the first couple of chapters. I felt that I really could not put it down, but after a while it seemed like the excitement and suspense from the first couple of chapters just went, poof, gone. It never returned for the rest of the book. I was hoping to be a little scared. This book, with it’s vintage photographs of erie children made for some incredible visuals. Though I was disappointed in this book, it was simply for my preconceived notions of what I thought this book would be like. Otherwise it’s a very interesting and original book.