Thursday, November 17, 2011

Book Review: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children


Sometimes the title of a book just catches your imagination, and without knowing anything else about the book, you just have to read it.  A few months ago a patron asked if we had "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" and I knew I had to read that book. 
It was a new book, so I had to wait for our Youth Services Librarian to order it, then it took a while to get to my name on the list, but it was finally my turn last week and I happily started in.
The book is about a boy, Jacob, whose grandfather tells him stories of the time the grandfather spent in a children's home on an island off the Welch coast.  He was sent there to escape the Nazis during World War II, however, this is not just any children's refugee home.  All the children were "peculiar."  The grandfather even has photos of the children (they are in the book as well!)  When Jacob is young he believes all  his grandfather's stories, but as he gets older he develops doubts, because, really, can children levitate?
When Jacob is 16 he is forced to re-evaluate what he believes.



Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
By Riggs, Ransom
2011-06 - Quirk Books
9781594744761 Check Our Catalog

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. …More


Read Alikes
The Bad Beginning The Bad Beginning
By Snicket, Lemony
Illustrator Helquist, Brett
1999-08 - HarperCollins Publishers
9780064407663 Check Our Catalog 2003 Colorado Children's Book Award Junior Novel Winner

After the sudden death of their parents, the three Baudelaire children must depend on each other and their wits when it turns out that the distant relative who is appointed their guardian is determined to use any means necessary to get their fortune. Illustrations. …More


The Reptile Room The Reptile Room
By Snicket, Lemony
Illustrator Helquist, Brett
1999-08 - HarperCollins Publishers
9780064407670 Check Our Catalog

A Children's Bestseller - 2004
After narrowly escaping the menacing clutches of the dastardly Count Olaf, the three Baudelaire orphans are taken in by a kindly herpetologist with whom they live happily for an all-too-brief time.


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The Wide Window The Wide Window
By Snicket, Lemony
Illustrator Helquist, Brett
2000-02 - HarperCollins Publishers
9780064407687 Check Our Catalog


If you have not read anything about the Baudelaire orphans, then before you read even one more sentence, you should know this: Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are kindhearted and quick-witted, but their lives, I am sorry to say, are filled with bad luck and misery. All of the stories about these three children are unhappy and wretched, and the one you are holding may be the worst of them all.
If you haven't got the stomach for a story that includes a hurricane, a signaling device, hungry leeches, cold cucumber soup, a horrible villain, and a doll named Pretty Penny, then this book will probably fill you with despair.With all due respect,
Lemony Snicket. …More


The Hunger Games The Hunger Games
By Collins, Suzanne
2010-07 - Scholastic Press
9780439023528 Check Our Catalog

The acclaimed author of the "New York Times"-bestselling Underland Chronicles series delivers equal parts suspense and philosophy, adventure and romance, in a stunning novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to the present. …More


The Magicians The Magicians
By Grossman, Lev
2010-05 - Plume Books
9780452296299 Check Our Catalog

Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. After he graduates from college, he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory--the land of the fantasy novels they read as children--is real and much darker and more dangerous than they could have imagined. …More


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