I first reviewed this book in February 2014 and LOVED it. Quirk Books, the publisher, is celebrating the five year anniversary of its release and have sent a really cool Miss Peregrine tote bag to give to one of my readers in honor of the anniversary (and the upcoming movie that releases in October). Here’s my original review and, at the bottom, you can leave a comment to be included in the drawing:
I’d seen this book in bookstores and on book fair tables for a while, but whenever I picked it up or thought about buying it, I’d end up putting it down. I just couldn’t decide if I wanted to read it or not. So when I found it in the school library before Christmas break, I grabbed it thinking it wouldn’t hurt to start it.
It took me a while to get into Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I didn’t immediately feel connected to this odd story of kids that do magical things, stories from an old grandfather everyone thought was a little off, and pages filled with weird vintage pictures. I just couldn’t get a feel for it in the beginning.
But I kept on, thinking it must be good because I was starting to pay attention when people talked about it and was hearing that it was well-loved.
And then one day, it clicked: I couldn’t put it down, couldn’t believe what was happening, and couldn’t take, on the last page, when it was over.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children centers on Jacob, a sixteen-year-old only child, who has grown up hearing stories from his Jewish grandfather about the time he spent living in a children’s home during World War II. His family had sent him there for safety and, when the war was over, he didn’t have a family to return to so he came to America and started over. The stories he would tell his grandson were accompanied by pictures as proof of the wild tails about boys who were full of bees and a girl with two mouths. But as Jacob got older, he became cynical, believing more and more that these were just Photoshopped pictures his grandfather used to rationalize his made-up stories.
Soon after, the pictures went away and Grandpa stopped sharing the stories. Years later, Jacob witnesses his grandfather’s death in the woods by, what officials declare are wild dogs, but Jacob knows it was something else. This claim prompts his parents to send him to a local psychologist to help Jacob with his post-traumatic stress.
While in his recovery, the shrink suggests Jacob travel to the home where his grandfather says he lived and do some investigating. Let Jacob learn that they were just stories and it will help him recover, the doctor says.
So Jacob and his dad take off. And what Jacob learns about his grandfather, his stories, and those pictures changes everything. And now Jacob can never go back.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is historical fantasy where real world events collide with magical tales. If you love when authors take inspiration for history to help them create stories, this book is for you. It was definitely out of my normal realm of reading, but I’m so very glad I read it. At times, I felt I was reading the first draft of a really good, visually stunning movie script. Not that it was rough and unedited, but that the imagery was so well-written and would play out so well on the big screen that it would be a travesty not to make it into a movie. (This coming from someone who normally hates when they turn a book into a movie…)
I didn’t realize until I neared the end that this book isn’t the end, it’s the beginning of a trilogy and the second one is already out (edit: called Hollow City–which I’ve now read and it’s just as good!). So I’ll be on the lookout for that one now. Because I have to know how this ends, it’s too important to leave things unsettled.
Have you read this one before? What did you think? And what about Jacob and Emma?? Did that weird you out a little bit?
Want to win a Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children tote bag to rock this summer and carry to the movie in October? Leave a comment below telling me why you loved the book or why you’d like to read it! I’ll randomly select a winner on July 26th so make sure you leave your email address.
Loved this book. Just got Hollow City! My 7 year old is interested in it too. We may start the first tone together this summer!
I am in the middle of Hollow City right now! DId you know that the third one is out already, Library of Souls?
I don’t know why I haven’t read this one yet. I’ll go search it out at the library today. I have to read it before I see the movie or it doesn’t count.
I love this series and I am super excited about it coming to the big screen! I even got the chance to meet Ransom Riggs when he came to Atlanta to promote the last book in the series. d in your post–the historical fantasy. My two favorite genres meshed together as one!
What got me first interested into it was the gorgeous photos and all the kids with their peculiar powers. The little romance we got and historical we got more in the second book.
This sounds very interesting! The description reminds me of “The Night Circus”?
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