Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

Summary: Throughout his life, Jacob Portman’s grandfather told him enthralling and terrifying stories. Some, like what it was like to live through World War II while being Jewish, Jacob knows to be true. Others, like those about peculiar children, monsters, and orphanages...he isn’t so sure. When Jacob witnesses his grandfather’s violent death and begins to experience distress and anxiety, his parents send him to a therapist, who suggests he visits the location of his grandfather’s stories, a small island off the coast of Wales. There, Jacob learns there’s more to this world than meets the eye, both in good, and in evil. 

Critical Evaluation: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is Ransom Riggs’ debut novel, and his passion for storytelling shines through in his writing as he incorporates vintage photographs throughout his book. Collected over the years, Riggs states about his writing process, “sometimes I’d find a new photo that just demanded to be included in the story, and I’d find a way to work it in; other times I’d look for a certain type of photo to fit a story idea I had. It was a fun, strange, organic writing process, unlike anything I’d attempted before” (Riggs, 2011, p. 358). 

This inclusion of almost fifty photographs heightens the story, and may leave even the most skeptical of teen readers wondering about the thrills and the horrors of the past, and whether stories like Miss Peregrine’s could, in fact, be true and occurring in the natural world. Readers who enjoy the inclusion of pictures will obviously also appreciate the novel, especially as the photographs do so much to inform the characters and the setting of the story.

While the vintage photographs make the novel what it is, some readers may find that bits of the plot feel forced, as Riggs was trying to work in his favorites. While the characters and setting of the story feel honest, occasionally the plot falters. In this way, the pictures are both the most entrancing, and yet perhaps the most inhibiting part of the story. Nevertheless, the series has gone on to include six novels in two separate trilogies and a movie adaptation, so it’s clear that readers’ love of the characters and fascination with the vintage photography has persevered. Riggs’ unique style and ideas shine in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, despite some slow or forced moments in the plot. 

Reader’s Annotation: Jacob’s grandfather tells fantastical stories about horrific monsters, peculiar children, and an orphanage trapped in time. But are they just stories?