Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Riggs debut novel takes an interesting twist to the current "monsters in our daily lives," genre.  Sixteen-year-old Jacob is doubting the stories his grandfather told him as he was growing up.  He can no longer accept that there were children, as seen in the photographs his grandfather shows him from his childhood, that were endowed with strange gifts and abilities.  He still loves his grandfather, however, and is devastated when he witnesses his grandfather's death at the hands of a horrible monster.  No one believes Jacob's story about the monster, so he is sent to a psychiatrist to help him through this fantasy and his shock at losing his grandfather.  In order to confront the monster fantasy, he goes with his father to Cairnholm island, off the coast of Wales, where his grandfather was raised in a home under the hand of Miss Peregrine.  The hope is that he will see first-hand that there is nothing magical in the home where his grandfather grew up, and perhaps help him to deal with reality and dismiss the thought of his grandfather being murdered by a hideous monster.  He does find the home, but here is where the story takes an unusual twist and Jacob finds himself among the "peculiar children."  The story is a fun ride with enjoyable characters.  It should be a good choice for male or female middle schoolers and above. 



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