Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
After Jacob’s grandfather dies in odd circumstances Jacob feels his life coming apart. He can’t ignore the strange and scary things he has seen that seem impossible. And he can’t get the weird stories his grandfather told him about his childhood in Wales out of his mind. Did his grandfather make it all up as he suspects? Or is there any truth in the tales? To ease his mind Jacob travels (with dad in tow) to find the orphanage where his grandfather spent his childhood: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
I really like books that play around with format and style. In this book the author takes Victorian era photographs from various personal collections (all purchased from yard sales and antique shops) and weaves them into the story. These are creepy photographs. It’s amazing what you could do with trick photography back then. My favorite is the photograph of a young girl looking into a calm pool of water. Normal enough until you realize that in the pool are the reflections of two little girls…
Marketed as a young adult novel (personally I feel it’s because of the photographs interspersed with the plot) this book would appeal to those who have ever felt a little different or wanted to be more peculiar.
