Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

For the film, see Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (film).
Not to be confused with Missy Peregrym.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
Child levitating stiffly over a dirt path
Cover photograph courtesy of Yefim Tovbis
AuthorRansom Riggs
LanguageEnglish
GenreYoung Adult, Fantasy
PublisherQuirk Books
Publication placeUnited States
Published in English
June 7, 2011
Media typePrint, e-book, audiobook
Pages352 pp.
ISBN978-1-59474-476-1
OCLC664668604
Followed byHollow City 

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a 2011 contemporary fantasy debut novel by American author Ransom Riggs. The story is told through a combination of narrative and a mix of vernacular and found photography from the personal archives of collectors listed by the author.

This young adult book was originally intended to be a picture book featuring photographs Riggs had collected, but on the advice of an editor at Quirk Books, he used the photographs as a guide from which to put together a narrative.[1][2] Riggs was a collector of photographs, but needed more for his novel. He met Leonard Lightfoot, a well-known collector at the Rose Bowl Flea Market, and was introduced to other collectors.[3] The result was a story about a boy who follows clues from his grandfather's old photographs, tales, and his grandfather's last words which lead him on an adventure that takes him to a large abandoned orphanage on Cairnholm, a fictional Welsh island.[2]

The book has been a New York Times best seller.[1][4] It reached the No. 1 spot on the Children's Chapter Books list on April 29, 2012, after being on the list for 45 weeks,[5] remaining there until May 20, when it dropped to the fourth spot on the list.[6][7][8] The book received generally positive reviews for creative use of vintage photographs in the sepia style, surrealist form, characterization and setting. A sequel, Hollow City, was released on January 14, 2014.

  1. ^ a b Rife, Susan (December 16, 2011). "Ransom Riggs visits alma mater to discuss 'Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children'". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Archived from the original on February 1, 2012.
  2. ^ a b Cameron, Claire (August 19, 2011). "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on December 21, 2011.
  3. ^ Medley, Mark (June 21, 2011). "Freak chic: The "universal creepiness" of Ransom Riggs' new novel". National Post. Archived from the original on January 30, 2013.
  4. ^ "Best Sellers – Children's Chapter Books". New York Times. August 21, 2011. Archived from the original on June 23, 2013.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference nyt-20120429 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference nyt-20120506 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference nyt-20120513 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference nyt-20120520 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).