"Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children"

AUTHOR: Ransom Riggs

PUBLISHED: 2011

GENRE: Young Adult

Given that large parts of my childhood were devoted to the Baby-Sitters Club series, one would think I would have a greater appreciation for the current renaissance of the Young Adult genre.  As a rule, however, I avoid YA novels.  I blame it on the time I was tricked into reading the insipid garbage that is Twilight, but it started long before that.  I have not read a single page of Harry Potter.  I know nothing about the Hunger Games.  So when the nice young woman at Barnes & Nobles told me I couldn’t find Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children in Fiction because it was over in Teen Fiction, I sniffed disdainfully, grabbed Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Everything, and saw myself out.

Well, A Short History of Everything is sitting in the back seat of my car, a bookmark wedged in the middle of the chapter about the elemental composition of asteroids.*  Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children is up on the bookshelf, done and done.

Miss Peregrine’s School is the story of Jacob Portman, who grew up hearing his grandfather’s stories of a magical island full of unusual children, and of the monsters that haunted them.  As Jacob grows, he learns the truth of his grandfather’s escape from Nazi Germany, and decides that those fantastical stories are simply the old man’s way of coping with his past.  But when his grandfather suffers a violent and bloody death, Jacob vows to find out the whole story behind the peculiar children of his grandfather’s youth.

What makes Miss Peregrine’s School really different is its use of images to supplement the story.  Each peculiar child is shown: the levitating girl, the invisible boy, the fire-starter.  It’s a gambit that could have easily turned into a cheap-looking gimmick, and in a stronger book, it might have seemed excessive.  But in this case, the photos work because they supplement was is sometimes a weak storyline.  Miss Peregrine’s School is a fantasy tale, so you don’t expect scientific explanations of where the children’s powers came from or how the time loop works.  But something beyond “they’re just that way” would have been nice.  The magic requires a pretty big leap of faith, and the photos help distract the reader from their disbelief. 

The ending of Miss Peregrine’s School is the weakest part of the book – it’s obvious that Riggs could see the end in sight and just took off running to get there – but satisfying enough.  That is really the way to describe the whole thing, actually – satisfying enough that you are glad you read it but not so great that you’re bummed he hasn’t written anything else.  But hey, not everything has to be Anna Karenina.  Or A Short History of Everything, for that matter.

Riggs’ Jacob is an unhappy young man, a far more complex character than those in the Baby-Sitters Club.  Jacob’s struggles with depression and strained relationships are just as important as his struggles with wights and hollowgasts.  Riggs doesn’t pander to his audience, or assume they are too young to understand things like mental illness or adult relationships.  This seems to be a hallmark of this new wave of teen fiction, and for that I should be a little more receptive.  Harry Potter, here I come?

LENGTH: 352 pages (and about a fifth are pictures and chapter title cards)

MAINSTREAM OR NOT?: Right now, there is nothing more popular than Young Adult fantasy novels.

SO, SHOULD I READ IT OR NOT?: Yes.  It’s a good introduction to a genre that has changed dramatically since we all were kids.  Plus, at only one book, it’s a lot less daunting that 6 Harry Potters.

*That is not meant to demean Bill Bryson in any way.  I love Bill Bryson.  I have A Walk in the Woods to blame for my urge to hike the Appalachian Trail, and I have At Home to thank for many of my favorite “did you know…” tidbits.  For instance, did you know that before indoor plumbing, people often just did their business in stairwells and dark hallways?  If that isn’t a conversation starter, I don’t know what is.  But anyway.  That’s a subject for another time.