Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is the first in a series of novels in which Jacob Portman embarks on a journey to find Miss Peregrine and solve the mysteries of his grandfather’s past. Jacob ends up in a special home for peculiar children and learns about every person there and what their abilities are. He soon realizes that he has a unique ability, just like them—and he learns about what he can do with this. Jacob also learns about a girl named Emma who was in love with his grandfather, and why he abandoned these children after growing up with them. The reader learns about what Miss Peregrine did to stop the hollogast creatures from harming the children: it is revealed that she created a time loop. There are some hollowgasts that are trying to get rid of Miss Peregrine to try and gain immortality—chaos begins to erupt when Jacob’s psychiatrist turns out to be a hollowgast!

Jacob has to make the choice of staying with the children and Miss Peregrine in the past or going back to the normal world—he chooses to stay. This book also uses some photographs that definitely give it that old book theme and help the reader be able to visualize the setting and what each of the characters looks like. I think that these novels were probably one of my favorite fantasy novels that I have read, the plot is very interesting and unlike other books. I would recommend reading this book because it is something completely different and it does make you want to read more—it makes you really engaged in the reading.

Review by: Kassandra R.

Kassandra is a virtual volunteer at Sylmar Branch Library. She is a 12th grader at Sylmar Charter High School.

—Dana Eklund, Sylmar Branch Library