Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2011) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Jacob Portman: The book's protagonist. A sixteen-year-old who searches for the truth behind his grandfather's life.
• Abraham Portman: Jacob's grandfather, a teller of fabulous stories about his childhood that fascinate the young Jacob at first, before he outgrows the fantastic tales.
• Franklin Portman: Jacob's father. An amateur ornothologist, he agrees to accompany Jacob to Cairnholm since he can study the birdlife on the island. He often works himself up about book projects, but quickly loses steam, and has many unfinished manuscripts locked up in his office.
• Susan Portman: Jacob's paternal aunt, Abraham's daughter, Franklin's sister.
• Ricky: Jacob's "best" and only friend in his hometown in Florida. He's the brawn to Jacob's brains. Their friendship has never been "all that," but it is almost completely cut off after a Yo Mom joke (I kid you not) which Ricky found to be outrageously offensive, almost shoving Jacob off of a roof for it.
• Dr. Golan: A psychiatrist who helps Jacob deal with the psychological trauma of his grandfather's death.
• Kev: The owner of the Priest Hole, a tavern with the only room for let and phone on Cairnholm.
• Dylan: Son of Cairnholm's butcher, he is a few years older than Jacob and has a penchant for rapping. Shows Jacob the way to the abandoned orphanage on Cairnholm.
• Worm: A local on Cairnholm and friend of Dylan. Seen as a troublmaker and a hoodlum. Aspires to be a famous rapper. (NOT)
• Martin Pagett: Curator of the museum in a converted ancient church on Cairnholm. Befriends Jacob.
• Uncle Oggie: Martin Pagett's old uncle.
• Miss Alma Peregrine: The headmistress of a home for orphans on Cairnholm island.
• Emma Bloom: One of the peculiar children at Miss Peregrine's orphanage and Jacob's closest ally.
• Millard Nullings: One of the peculiar children at Miss Peregrine's orphanage.
• Bronwyn 'Wyn' Bruntley: One of the peculiar children at Miss Peregrine's orphanage.
• Olive: One of the peculiar children at Miss Peregrine's orphanage.
• Hugh: One of the peculiar children at Miss Peregrine's orphanage.
• Claire Densmore: One of the peculiar children at Miss Peregrine's orphanage. She is described as having a dainty, pretty, doll-like face with immaculate golden curls. She is one of the younger children at the orphanage.
• Fiona: One of the peculiar children at Miss Peregrine's orphanage.
• Horace: One of the peculiar children at Miss Peregrine's orphanage. Horace is described as being very particular about his clothes and fashion.
• Esmerelda Avocet: An old friend of Miss Peregrine's.
• Miss Bunting: Friend of Miss Peregrine with talents similar to hers.
• Miss Finch: Friend of Miss Peregrine, with talents similar to hers.
• Malthus: A hollowgast.
• Victor: One of the peculiar children at the orphanage, Bronwyn's brother.
• Enoch O'Connor: One of the peculiar children.
• Miss Avocet: Friend of Miss Peregrine with talents similar to hers.
• Aunt Susie: Add a description of this character.
• Uncle Bobby
• Charlotte
• Jill
• Mr. Emerson
• Mr. Barron
• Shelley

Quotes edit see section history

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• “I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen.”

  Jacob Portman

• “I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary I was.”

  Jacob Portman

• “Soon I passed the shack, dim outlines of sheep huddled inside against the chill, and then the mist shrouded bog, silent and ghostly. I thought about the twenty-seven-hundred-year-old resident of Cairnholm’s museum and wondered how many more like him these fields held, undiscovered, arrested in death; how many more had given up their lives here, looking for heaven.”

  Jacob Portman

• “Sometimes you just need to go through a door.”

  Jacob Portman

• “When someone won’t let you in, eventually you stop knocking.”

  Franklin Portman

• “You’re right, Dad. Dr. Golan did help me. But that doesn’t mean he has to control every aspect of my life. I mean, Jesus, you and mom might as well buy me one of those little bracelets that says What Would Golan Do? That way I can ask myself before I do anything. Before I take a dump. How would Dr. Golan want me to take this dump? Should I bank it off the side or go straight down the middle? What would be the most psychologically beneficial dump I could take?”

  Jacob Portman

• “I'm not meant to tell you this, but common people can't pass through time loops.”

  Emma Bloom

• “Stars, too were time travelers. How many of those ancient points of light were the last echoes of suns now dead? How many had been born but their light not yet come this far? If all the suns but ours collapsed tonight, how many lifetimes would it take us to realize that we were alone? I had always known the earth was full of mysteries- but not until now had I realized how full of them the earth was.”

  Jacob Portman

• “Eventually we ran out of nothing to talk about, and I excused myself and went upstairs to be alone.”

  Jacob Portman

Setting & Locations edit see section history

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• Englewood, Florida: Jacob's home in America.
• Wales: A country in the southwest of Briton, where most of the story is set.
• Cairnholm Island: An island in Wales, site for the Home for Peculiar Children. This Island does not exist.
• Priest Hole: The only lodging on the island; where Jacob and his father stay. Named for hidden doors through which priests could escape during the persecution of Catholics during the English Reformation.
• The Home for Peculiar Children: A bombed, ruined old house on the far side of Cairnholm Island where Jacob's grandfather told him he spent his childhood to escape the monsters.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Hollowgast: A compound word formed from the English "hollow", and the Anglo Saxon "gast", meaning spirit. A peculiar whose soul was hollowed out as a result of immoral and dangerous experiments with time, and now is invisible even to most peculiars, and who hunts and devours them in an effort to escape their tortured state.
• Wight: An Anglo-Saxon word meaning "man" or "person", more commonly used to mean "a spirit, ghost, or other supernatural being". In this book, a wight is a hollow who has fed on enough peculiars to pass for a normal human being. Marked by a lack of pupils in their eyes.
• Homunculus: A very small human or humanoid creature, often one which is made artificially, as through alchemy.
• Ymbryne: An Anglo-Saxon compound word: "ymb", meaning time, and "ryne", meaning a course or circuit; together, meaning a year's course or anniversary, or, literally, a time loop. In the book, a woman who can manipulate time to create loops of continuous time within a single day.
• Coerlfolc: An Anglo-Saxon compound word: "coerl", originally meaning slave but with a later meaning of a common free man, and "folk", meaning folk or people. All those humans who are not peculiars.
• Syndrigast: An Anglo-Saxon compound word: "syndri", meaning sundered or separate, and "gast", meaning spirit. All those humans who have some peculiar ability or attribute, who must hide from normal human society.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Peregrine Falcon: A particular type of bird. They are like shape-shifters in the way they streamline their bodies while flying.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by Untitled Miss Peregrine Sequel.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Ransom Riggs (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Jesse Bernstein (Narrator)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• The Kitschies (Finalist, 2011: The Golden Tentacle for Best Debut Novel, Finalist)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3618 I3985 Sm57 2011
• Dewey: 813.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Mature situations and language Disturbing pictures

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction
• Books › Teens › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• www.ransomriggs.com

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history