Review : Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children by  Ransom Riggs is classed as a young adult novel, but easily crosses over the age divide to appeal to adults as well.

Take compelling multi-dimensional characters of all ages that the reader really cares about, orphaned children with “peculiar” powers that range from mildly interesting to downright dangerous, throw in some time travel, evil beings from another dimension who killed the protagonists grandfather (a former “peculiar” child himself), the fate of the world, and a love story, and you still don’t get close to all of the themes and story lines covered in the powerful novel “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.”  I didn’t just “read” this book, it pulled me into it in a way that doesn’t happen often.  It also took me back into my own childhood, back to a time when the world is just so much more mysterious than it is now.  Or at least more mysterious than we adults often allow it to be.

With old-fashioned black and white photographs throughout, this is a peculiarly satisfying read for anyone who is willing to step outside the usual fiction box and embark on a strange adventure.

reviewed by Robert Leonard,author of Yellow Cab, University of New Mexico Press, 2006, and www.driftplainstories.blogspot.com

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