Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Author: Ransom Riggs
Genre: Coming of Age, Mystery
Rating: 9
Teach-ability: As a read-aloud, 7
Teachable Aspects: prediction, characters, story

I really really enjoyed this book. It kept popping up on my GoodReads list on a book that I should read, but the little girl on the cover scared me so bad I kept pushing it aside. I'm extremely glad that I decided to read it. Once in a while one encounters a story that is fresh, and new, and not one that is just a re-fabricated version of another story. After the last few books that I encountered, this seemed like a breath of fresh air.

In addition to a unique plot and interesting characters, this story was extremely well written for a Young Adult novel. One thing that I am finding about the YA genre over this assignment is that while the stories may be interesting and the characters well-constructed and familiar, sometimes the quality of writing is sacrificed. This was not one of those cases.

The story follows a teenage boy who grew up with the stories told by his grandfather about a place with children with special powers and different abilities. Peculiar Children. As many kids do, the stories told to Jacob are dismissed as fairy tales and he continues with his life, always holding a special connection to his grandfather. This world is turned upside down after the death of his grandfather, and Jacob's journey to cope with his death takes him to place where Jacob's grandfather grew up.

One really unique aspect to the story that was done wonderfully was the incorporation of pictures along with the text. In many situations the text was enhanced by the presence of pictures which is something that I have not yet encountered in the books that I have read thus far this semester. The pictures were not just additions to the text, they supplemented it.

This book was all over really good. The pacing was on point and the action kept you reading. I would definitely share this book with others, but it’s one of those books that I wouldn't want ruined by over-analyzing. It would be a text I would love to share as a whole class read-aloud text. I would recommend it for young and old adults alike.