By: Ransom RiggsSydney RelihanReading-RocheClass Period 3

5/11/12

Ransom Riggs was born on a farm in Maryland where he decided that he wanted to be a farmer so he could drive tractors. His mom then moved his family to a boring village in Florida where he started to make up stories to pass the time. After spending time with friends making videos in his backyard, Riggs decided he wanted to be either a writer or a person who makes movies. Today, he lives in Los Angeles, California where he does both: he makes movies and writes novel of all different kinds.

http://www.ransomriggs.com/

When Jacob Portman was a young boy, his grandfather used to tell him about a magical orphanage that he used to live in with his friends and the Bird. As Jacob grew up, he no longer believed his grandfather’s stories. Jacob had to unravel the mysteries of his grandfather’s past when Grandpa Portman was mysteriously murdered in the woods one day. Following his grandfather’s last words, Jacob went to the island where Grandpa Portman used to live when he was a child. Jacob went back in time and met peculiar children with magical abilities. He became good friends with Emma, a peculiar who could conjure fire with her bare hands. The headmistress, Miss Peregrine, got captured soon after. Jacob tried to save Miss Peregrine using his newfound peculiar ability and the help of his friends. Will they succeed? Will they stop the evil wights and hollows? Read this exciting adventure novel to find out.

MAINJacob Portman was a sixteen year old boy who was very close to his grandfather. When his grandfather died, Jacob went to where his grandfather used to live to discover his secret. Jacob later found out that he had the peculiar ability to be able to see wights just like Grandpa Portman did. Emma Bloom was a peculiar who could conjure fire with her bare hands. She had been living with Miss Peregrine for a long time. She was 88 years old, but even though she was very old, she looked and acted young because of the loop. She was a good friend of Jacob’s grandpa and was kind to Jacob while he stayed with the children.  Miss Peregrine was a ymbryne who could manipulate time and turn into a Peregrine Falcon. She made the loop the children lived in and was the Headmistress of the home. She helped Jacob get through tough times and was very caring towards her wards.  SUPPORTING Millard Nullings was a peculiar who was invisible. He was 87 years old and had lived with Miss Peregrine for a long time. He was kind to Jacob and was very useful in helping catch Dr. Golan and the hollow. Dr. Golan was a wight. A wight was a person who helped hollows (evil monsters). They had white eyes without pupils. Dr. Golan started out as Jacob’s bus driver, yardman, and psychiatrist. Dr. Golan tried to kill Jacob and Emma when they atemped to stop him. Golan also captured Miss Peregrine and other ymbrynes. Bronwyn was a peculiar who was super strong. She could lift almost anything and was Emma’s a good friend. She helped to stop Dr. Golan and was nice to Jacob when she first met him.

 INTRODUCTION• Grandpa Portman told Jacob stories about the Peculiars and the orphanage.•Grandpa Portman was mysteriously murdered in the woods.•Jacob and his father went to Cairnholm Island where Jacob searched for the old orphanage. RISING ACTION•Jacob found the orphanage but was very disappointed because it was empty and run down.•Jacob accidently stumbled upon the loop where he went back in time.•Jacob became good friends with the peculiar children who lived with Miss Peregrine in the loop. Peculiars were people with magical abilities.•Jacob learned that there was a murder.•Jacob learned about hollows (evil monsters) and the people who worked for them called wights.•Jacob discovered his peculiar ability – he could see hollows. CLIMAX•Miss Peregrine was captured by wights and Jacob, Emma, Enoch, Bronwyn, and Millard went to stop them. The group encounterd Dr. Golan, Jacob’s former psychiatrist who was actually a wight. They also fought and killed a hollow.

FALLING ACTION•Emma, Bronwyn, Jacob, and Millard battled Dr. Golan.•Millard got shot by Dr. Golan.•Jacob killed Dr. Golan.•Emma and Jacob rescued Miss Peregrine from the wights, but the headmistress could not turn back into a bird so the loop stopped resetting itself. CONCLUSION•Since the loop did not reset, the house was destroyed by a bomb.•Jacob said goodbye to his dad because he decided to stay with the children.•The children decided to go out into the normal world to try to stop the wights. They would leap frog to past loops to try to find where the wights were hiding.

inoculating – (v) to treat (a person or animal) with a vaccine to produce immunity against a disease: “I think they worried that my grandfather would infect me with some incurable dreaminess from which I’d never recover – that these fantasies were somehow inoculating me against more practical ambitions. . .”page 8. lanai – (n) a porch or veranda: “He pushed back his lawn chair and went into the house, leaving me alone on the screened-in lanai.” Page 10. moniker – (n) a name: . . . “[I]n those humiliating seconds I foresaw the moniker “fairy boy” trailing me for years and, rightly or not, I resented him for it.” Page 16. banal – (adj.) so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring: . . . “[T]hey were monsters with human faces, in crisp uniforms, marching in lockstep, so banal you don’t recognize them for what they are until it’s too late.” Page 17. purge – (v) rid of an unwanted feeling, memory, or dondition, typically giving a sense of cathartic release: “Dr. Golan was convinced that understanding them might help purge my awful dreams.” Page 41.

Millard Nullings: Voice of Alexander Gould

Jacob Portman: Cameron Bright

Emma Bloom: Skylar Samuels

Miss Peregrine: Maggie Smith

Bronwyn: Isabelle Fuhrman

Dr. Golan: Christian Bale

I think the song “People are Strange” by The Doors is a good song to describe the peculiar children in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. The song talks about strange people and strange is a synonym for peculiar. It also says that when people are strange, no one remembers your name, just like how since the loop resets itself everyday and the townspeople do not remember anything that happened ‘yesterday.’ It also talks about how faces look ugly when you are strange and not all the peculiar’s have pretty abilities. This song is a good song to describe Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Click here to play “People are

Strange”

Final Rating: 5 stars

I rated Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children a 5 out of 5 stars. It was full of mysteries, adventures, and fun surprises. It also had great characters, a creative setting, and an exciting plot. Overall, I would recommend Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children to any reader who enjoys a good fantasy book with exciting surprises.