MOVIE REVIEW

SYNOPSIS
When his beloved grandfather leaves Jake clues to a mystery that
spans different worlds and times, he finds a magical place known as
Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children. But the mystery and
danger deepen as he gets to know the residents and learns about
their special powers - and their terrifying enemies. Ultimately, Jake
discovers that only his own special peculiarity can save his new
friends. Based on the novel "Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar
Children," written by Ransom Riggs.

SUMMARY

MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR

PECULIAR CHILDREN
SUMMARY
 
When Jacob Portman (we hope he introduces us to cousin Natalie) is young, he
idolizes his Grandpa Abe, a man who was raised in an orphanage, fought in wars, and
even performed in the circus. Grandpa Abe tells Jacob fantastic stories and shows him
photos of peculiar children—invisible boys, strong girls, and people with mouths in the
back of their heads. Jacob believes these tall tales until he gets old enough not to. Just
as kids stop believing in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, Jacob stops believing in
Grandpa's peculiar childhood.
When Jacob is fifteen, his grandfather starts ranting and raving about monsters coming
to get him. Jacob and his dad write it off as dementia. Big mistake: When Jacob goes to
check on his grandfather, he finds him dead… and he comes face to face—well, face to
tentacle—with the monster that killed him. Jacob's grandfather dies in Jacob's arms, but
not before uttering the most cryptic last words since "Rosebud."
No one believes that a monster killed Grandpa. (Official cause of death: rabid dogs.)
Jacob starts having nightmares and slips into a deep depression. His psychiatrist, Dr.
Golan, suggests he go to the island where Grandpa was raised, and maybe find the
explanation behind his mysterious dying words.
Jacob and his dad fly to Cairnholm Island, in Wales, and Jacob finds Miss Peregrine's
home way out past the island's bogs. Snooping around the decaying estate, Jacob finds
a cache of old photos like the ones Grandpa had. Maybe the tales were true?
Jacob realizes that they're definitely true when he gets caught snooping by a girl who
can generate fire with her bare hands. This girl and her friends run when they see
Jacob, but he chases them. They turn out to be Emma Bloom, firestarter, and Millard
Nullings, an invisible boy. They lead Jacob on a chase through a cairn, which turns out
to be a portal into the past, which takes Jacob to September 3, 1940, the day before
Miss Peregrine's home was destroyed by a bomb dropped during World War II. The
house is restored, and it's full of peculiar children.
By peculiar, we mean kids with superpowers or strange deformities.
Grandpa Abe was raised here, but Miss Peregrine (who can turn into a peregrine) tells
Jacob that he left to fight the hollowgast, the evil monsters that hunt the peculiars, and
the same type of monster who killed Grandpa Abe. To stay safe from the hollowgast,
Miss Peregrine created the time loop. They repeat the same day every day, and the
bomb that falls on the house never explodes.
As Jacob starts to fall in love with Emma, his grandfather's ex-girlfriend who still looks
sixteen thanks to the time loop, he learns that there are groups of bad peculiars trying to
gain immortality. When their big experiment failed, they became the hollowgast. With
the help of wights—monsters who look human—the hollowgast roam around and eat
peculiars. Only Jacob can see them.
The hollowgast launch a plot to kidnap Miss Peregrine and other ymbrynes—shape-
shifting women who can control time—to try the immortality thing again. Jacob's
psychiatrist, Dr. Golan, turns out to be a wight, and Jacob leads him right to Miss
Peregrine. Golan birdnaps Peregrine and her mentor, Miss Avocet, and carries them out
to sea.
Jacob and his new peculiar friends give chase, kill Golan and the hollowgast, and
rescue Miss Peregrine. Miss Avocet is taken away, and Miss Peregrine is stuck in bird
form. Because she can't change back, the time loop collapses, the bomb falls, and the
home is destroyed.
Even though he knows he can never return to the real world if he stays, Jacob decides
to stay in the past and accompany Emma to find Miss Avocet and change Miss
Peregrine back to normal. He says goodbye to his father, returns to 1940, and paddles
away in a boat to destinations unknown.
 MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR
PECULIAR CHILDREN THEMES
 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Themes

The Supernatural
When you hear the word peculiar, what do you think of? Strange? Unusual? Quirky? In the
case of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, we have to add supernatural to the list. If
you've so mu...

The Home
We're kind of required to talk about this theme because the word home is in the title of the book.
It's not Miss Peregrine's Basketball Court for Peculiar Children or Miss Peregrine's Restaurant
fo...

Betrayal
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a book that, like Gretchen Wieners' hair, is full of
secrets. And with secrets always comes betrayal. These two go hand-in-hand with each other
becaus...

Courage
The cover of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is creepy, so you have to be brave
just to read it. And some of the photos inside are just darn scary, like the Santa one that
belongs on th...

Appearances
Believe it or not, people were editing their photos way before Photoshop. Check out some of
these vintage photos from as far back as the mid-1800s. The pictures of ghosts, men juggling
their own he...
Identity
Identity is a major theme in any young adult novel. Most young adults are trying to figure out
what kind of no-longer-young adults they want to be. What college to go to, what career to
pursue, who...

Isolation
Check this definition of peculiar out: Peculiar comes from the Latin peculiaris, meaning one's
own, or personal. In English, it originally meant belonging to one person, private, like your
fondness...

Admiration
It's important to have a positive role model, whether it be your grandfather or Wolverine.
Although we're not sure how positive it is to have a role model who tears things up with his
claws.

ANALYSIS: SETTING
Where It All Goes Down

Cairnholm Island, Wales, September 3, 1940; Cairnholm Island, Wales, present day

Peregrine's Island
Jacob might be born and raised in Florida, but he ships off for Cairnholm Island in
search of the mysterious Miss Peregrine's home for children (he doesn't know they're
peculiar yet) by Chapter 3. Cairnholm Island is practically a character on its own, with
weather more erratic than any mood swing. Plus, with only one phone on the island and
generators that shut down at 10:00PM, it feels like we're traveling back in time even
before Jacob actually travels back in time.
The House on Haunted Hill
Jacob is told by the village people that Miss Peregrine's was a home for refugees during
the war. But when Jacob finds the house, he sees that it has been destroyed by a
bomb. Not what he expected.
Of course, we eventually learn that the house has been sealed away in a time loop,
repeating September 3, 1940, over and over again. There is a lot
of foreshadowing about this, like when Jacob says, "the house seemed unkillable"
(3.117), and he looks at objects that haven't been moved in years "as if time had
stopped the night they died" (5.5). Wink wink, nudge nudge.

Out of the Loop

The date of the time loop is significant because it's set smack dab in World War II. Early
in the book, parallels are drawn between Grandpa fleeing both monster-monsters (the
ones with tentacle faces) and Nazi-monsters (the ones with swastika armbands). When
Jacob stops believing his grandfather, he assumes that Grandpa was just making the
Nazis into literal monsters: "They were monsters with human faces, in crisp uniforms,
marching in lockstep" (Prologue.47). Much later, he realizes that it was both: "[Grandpa]
faced a double genocide, of Jews by the Nazis and of peculiars by the hollowgast"
(9.58). Double bummer.
Jacob can't imagine what that must be like, "to find yourself in the midst of an otherwise
unremarkable afternoon, suddenly in the shadow of enemy death machines that could
rain fire down upon you at a moment's notice" (5.180), but he does find out. In the time
loop, bombers fly overhead like clockwork, and they drop bombs right before the time
loop resets.
This should be horrific, but after you've seen it so many times—and know you'll be safe
—a certain beauty emerges to the bombs bursting in air and the rockets' red glare. The
peculiar children even call it "our beautiful display" (6.207), which would never happen if
their time moved linearly instead of in a loop.