Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

Jacob Porter’s grandpa has always been a bit odd; his fantastical and sometime nightmarish tales became harder to believe as Jacob grew older. But when Jacob hits 16 tragedy strikes and the tales have suddenly become all too real. Jacob sets off on a quest for the truth behind his grandpa’s extraordinary stories and discovers that he is not so ordinary himself. Some plot elements don’t quite hang together, particularly those concerning time loops, and it’s a little hard to swallow that a group of children could requisition boats on a fishing island in wartime Wales. However it’s best not to think too hard about the anomalies and let the action sweep you along into the intriguing world of peculiar children, the birds that protect them and the monsters that hunt them. The use of period photographs to illustrate the text is an interesting quirk and adds an element of depth. The ending sets up for the inevitable sequel, apparently mandatory in modern YA fantasy.