Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

By: Ransom Riggs

Anna Sharshon

Reading: Miss Roche

Period 3

May 11, 2012

Ransom Riggs: Biography

• Ransom Riggs was born on a farm in rural Maryland. Later he moved to Florida. As a child, Ransom Riggs liked to write stories and make films with his friends. As he got older, he still wanted to write books and make movies. After finishing high school, Ransom Riggs went to Kenyon college to study English so he could write good books. A few years later he moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California to learn how to make films. Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children was published in January 1, 2011. Ransom Riggs still writes books and makes movies today.

• Webpage: http://www.ransomriggs.com/bio/

Summary

• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children is an adventurous book about a sixteen year old boy, named Jacob Portman. Jacob starts out with a normal life until his grandfather dies. Jacob and his dad decides to go to the island off the coast of Wales, where his grandfather lived as a child, to learn more about his grandfather’s childhood. Jacob goes to his grandfather’s childhood home and discovers that there were other kids living with him. He finds photographs of the children and they are peculiar like, a girl that can fly and a boy who is invisible. Jacob gets in a time warp and finds the children from the photographs. They are the same age that they are in the photos and they live the same day everyday. He also discovers that they actually are very peculiar. A girl named Emma tells him that he is peculiar and that there are monsters out to eat peculiar children. Can Jacob and the other children protect themselves from being eaten by the monsters? Read to find out

Characters

o Main Characters1. Jacob Portman: Sixteen year old, kind, worries a lot, brave, smart.2. Emma Bloom: Could make fire with her bare hands, sensitive, courageous,

clever, quick.3. Miss Peregrine: Mysterious, clever, kind, warm-hearted, thoughtful, can turn

into a birdo Minor Characters

1. Jacob’s Mom: Protective, worries a lot, likes to brag, caring.2. Jacob’s Dad: Kind, keeps to himself.3. Abe Portman (Jacob’s grandfather): Mysterious, kind, scared, always on the

look out, stubborn, can see monsters.4. Olive: Tricky, humorous, can fly.5. Claire: Shy, has a mouth on the back of her head.6. Aunt Susie: Quiet, kind, thoughtful.7. Dr. Golan: Helpful, kind, reasonable, gives advice, is secretly evil.8. Oggie: Mysterious, old, unhappy, talkative.

Characters Cont.

9. Kev: Kind, helpful, fun.

10. Martin: Helpful, creative, caring, humorous.

11. Dylan: Tough, stubborn, rude.

12. Worm: Rude, humorous, tough, has a soft side.

13. Millard Nullings: Humorous, courageous, can turn invisible.

14. Hugh: Teasing, has bees living inside of him.

15. Fiona: Quiet, keeps to herself, shy, can grow plants in a few seconds.

16. Horace: Intelligent, formal, acts like an adult, has dreams of the future.

17. Miss Avocet: Protective, kind, worries a lot, humble, can turn into a bird.

18. Bronwyn: Courageous, has a soft side, has super strength.

19. Ricky: Keeps to himself, tough, humorous.

20. Enoch: Honest, talkative, can make nonliving things come alive.

Plot

o Introduction

• Meet Jacob Portman and his family.

• Setting: Present and past, in the summer, in an island off the coast of Wales and in Jacob’s neighborhood.

o Rising Action

• Jacob’s grandfather dies.

• Jacob wants to learn more about his grandfather’s childhood.

• Jacob and his dad go off the coast of Wales where his grandfather lived as a child.

• Jacob goes into the house and finds old photographs of children who lived with his grandfather.

• The children in the photos are peculiar, like a girl who can fly and a boy who is invisible.

Plot Cont.

o Climax• Jacob gets in a time warp and discovers that the children are still alive and

they are the same age as they were a long time ago because they live the same day; the children look peculiar and have powers that normal people would not have.

o Falling Action• Jacob meets all the children, including a girl named Emma Bloom, who was

his grandfather’s friend.• Jacob also meets the children's protector, Miss Peregrine.• The children that are peculiar, are in danger from monsters that eat peculiar

children like them.o Conclusion

• Emma tells Jacob that he is peculiar too, because he can see the monsters and everyone else can not.

• Jacob and the children need to protect themselves from the monsters because Miss Peregrine turns into a bird and she can not help them.

New Vocabulary

1. Endure- v. to bear, to put up with, to tolerate, to suffer “ But if it meant that I’d finally be able to put my grandfather’s mystery to rest and get on with my unextroardinary life, anything I had to endure would be worth it.” P. 642. Banister- n. a railing that guards the edges of stairs to prevent someone from falling “We proceeded down the hall, I remembered being almost impossibly clogged with broken furniture, past the staircase, now gleaming with varnish, curious faces peeking at me through the banisters, and through the dining room” P. 1403. Evade- v. to avoid, to escape by cleverness “In that brief time, Charlotte managed to evade the older children who were minding her and wander out of the loop.” P. 2074. Narcotic- n. a drug that relives pain, blunts the senses, and provides sleep “It was as if just being here had some kind of narcotic effect on me.” P. 2095. Resolute- adj. determined, purposeful, earned “Hugh seemed taken aback for a moment but then turned and gave me a resolute handshake” P. 244

Starring Actors:

• Emma Bloom played by: Peyton List

• Miss Peregrine played by: Gloria Stuart

• Jacob Portman played by: Adam Irigoyen

Starring Actors:

• Jacob’s Mom played by: Alexis Bledel

• Jacob’s dad played by: Kirk Cameron

• Dr. Golan played by: Esai Morales

Starring Actors:

• Abe Portman (Jacob’s Grandpa) played by: Ernest Borgnine

• Kev played by: Chris O’donnell

• Oggie played by: Ed Asner

Starring Actors:

• Martin played by: Joseph Gordon

• Dylan played by: Jesse Eisenburg

• Olive played by: Joey King

Starring Actors:

• Claire played by: Mackenzie Foy

• Aunt Susie played by: Jennifer Aniston

• Fiona played by: Dakota Fanning

Starring Actors:

• Bronwyn played by: Laine Macneil

• Ricky played by: Alexander Ludwig

• Hugh played by: Dylan Sprouse

Starring Actors:• Horace played by: Chandler Canterbury

• Millard Nullings played by: Henry Wynd

• Enoch played by: Jake Short

Starring Actors:

• Miss avocet played by: Briggite Bardot

• Worm played by: Landon Liboiron

Soundtrack Tunes

1. A scene where the main character, Jacob, is thinking about his grandfather’s death.

“Take a Back Road” by Rodney Atkins

Gotta get out of here, get it off my mind

And like a memory from your grandpa’s attic

A song comes slippin’ through the radio static

Changing my mood

A little George Strait 1982

And it makes me wanna take a back road

Makes me wanna take the long way home

Put a little gravel in my travel

Unwind, unravel all night long

Soundtrack Tunes Cont.

• I chose the song Take a Back Road because of the lyrics. This song reminds me of when the main character Jacob, is thinking about his grandfather’s death. Jacob is miserable and wants to find out more about his grandfather’s childhood. “Gotta get out of here get it off my mind” reminds me of when Jacob wants to get his grandfather’s death off his mind and go somewhere far. “And like a memory from your grandpa’s attic” reminds me of when Jacob tries to remember what his grandfather had told him before he died. “Changing my mood” reminds me of when Jacob has to change his mood and how he thinks of things to get on with his life. “And it makes me wanna take a back road” reminds me of when Jacob wants to find a different way to get on with his life. I think this song describes this book the best.

Rating

I gave Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children a rating of

5 out of 5 stars

I gave this book five out of five stars because it had a lot of adventure and action. There was a lot of descriptive detail of the setting and the events and I felt like I was the main character taking part in the adventure. I also liked how fantasy was mixed with realistic fiction. This book was very interesting and it was easy to read. I think that this is one of the best books I have ever read.

Other Recommendations

Other Adventurous Books

- The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester (A girl can fly and finds other people who have powers like her but there are evil people who want to take that power away).

- The Alchemyst by Michael Scott (A girl and boy are being chased by evil creatures who want them killed).

- Hatchet by Gary Paulsen (A boy gets stranded in the wilderness and has to survive with no food, shelter, and clothes).

- The Name of This Book is Secret by Pseudonymous Bosch (A girl, And two boys are being chased by an evil person who wants to kill them and take their brains to make a immortality potion).