Miss Perigrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is a book that I eagerly returned to each night, a book that I stayed up late (sometimes a little too late!) to read, a book that I praised to friends, a book that I passed along as soon as I finished. Thumbs up!
As a child, Jacob is very close to his grandfather (who, as a Jewish boy from Poland, was sent to a boarding school in Wales at the start of World War II). His grandfather regales him with stories of the children he knew at the school, “peculiar” children with remarkable abilities. As Jacob grows older, he rejects his grandfather’s stories as mere fantasy. But when his grandfather dies, Jacob feels compelled to visit the mysterious Welsh school where his beloved ancestor spent his teen-age years.
This book wasn’t at all what I expected—but the twists and surprises were part of the joy of this book. (Ransom Riggs’s novel should appeal to a broad group of readers.) And the eerie black-and-white photographs that accompany the text are a perfect touch.
