1. Miss Peregrine’s Home For
Peculiar Children
By: Ransom Riggs
Anna Sharshon
Reading: Miss Roche
Period 3
May 11, 2012

2. 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/

3. 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

4. Characters
o Main Characters
2. Jacob Portman: Sixteen year old, kind, worries a lot, brave, smart.
3. Emma Bloom: Could make fire with her bare hands, sensitive, courageous,
clever, quick.
4. Miss Peregrine: Mysterious, clever, kind, warm-hearted, thoughtful, can turn
into a bird
o Minor Characters
6. Jacob’s Mom: Protective, worries a lot, likes to brag, caring.
7. Jacob’s Dad: Kind, keeps to himself.
8. Abe Portman (Jacob’s grandfather): Mysterious, kind, scared, always on the
look out, stubborn, can see monsters.
9. Olive: Tricky, humorous, can fly.
10. Claire: Shy, has a mouth on the back of her head.
11. Aunt Susie: Quiet, kind, thoughtful.
12. Dr. Golan: Helpful, kind, reasonable, gives advice, is secretly evil.
13. Oggie: Mysterious, old, unhappy, talkative.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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. 64
2. 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. 140
3. 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. 207
4. 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. 209
5. Resolute- adj. determined, purposeful, earned
“Hugh seemed taken aback for a moment but then turned and gave me a resolute
handshake” P. 244

9. Starring Actors:
• Emma Bloom played by: Peyton List
• Miss Peregrine played by: Gloria Stuart
• Jacob Portman played by: Adam Irigoyen

10. Starring Actors:
• Jacob’s Mom played by: Alexis Bledel
• Jacob’s dad played by: Kirk Cameron
• Dr. Golan played by: Esai Morales

11. Starring Actors:
• Abe Portman (Jacob’s Grandpa) played by: Ernest
Borgnine
• Kev played by: Chris O’donnell
• Oggie played by: Ed Asner

12. Starring Actors:
• Martin played by: Joseph Gordon
• Dylan played by: Jesse Eisenburg
• Olive played by: Joey King

13. Starring Actors:
• Claire played by: Mackenzie Foy
• Aunt Susie played by: Jennifer Aniston
• Fiona played by: Dakota Fanning

14. Starring Actors:
• Bronwyn played by: Laine Macneil
• Ricky played by: Alexander Ludwig
• Hugh played by: Dylan Sprouse

15. Starring Actors:
• Horace played by: Chandler Canterbury
• Millard Nullings played by: Henry Wynd
• Enoch played by: Jake Short

16. Starring Actors:
• Miss avocet played by: Briggite Bardot
• Worm played by: Landon Liboiron

17. 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

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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).