Book Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

A literary agent I took a class with at Grub Street told me that most would-be-published books live or die off of their first page.  That’s about as much time as an agent, who could receive 30 or more manuscripts a day, has to give you.

If that’s truly the case, than no wonder Ransom Rigg‘s book Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children got picked up.  Within the first two paragraphs you know you’re in for a treat.  Read the whole prologue, and you’re a goner.

This is exactly what happened to me when I picked up this book at the Getty Museum while visiting my best friend in LA.  The name popped out to us because we are peculiar children, or as our program called it Exceptionally Gifted.  We went to college at 14 and got labeled as PEGs (program for the exceptionally gifted).  The thing is, I think most kids, in special programs or not, think they’re peculiar at that age, which is why this book has such a strong appeal.

Now, I’m biased because I’m a Young Adult fiction writer, but well written YA books can be the most insightful.  You see, if someone really knows what they’re talking about, they can explain it to a 5 year old.  And that’s what good YA does: it takes difficult concepts and sheds new light on them to make them understandable.  Which is exactly what Riggs does in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

If you’re looking for the type of book that you just can’t put down, go for it.  You won’t regret it.  And who knows, you may find out that you’re a little peculiar too.