Miss Peregrine’s home for Peculiar Children
“Mum, it looks like the girl on the front of your book is floating“ said my 11 year old son. He was immediately interested and I had to order the book in Dutch. No matter what age, magic is something we will always be drawn to. Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children is the magic of combining old photos with words into a great story which takes place on a remote island off the coast of Wales.
“Sleep is not, death is not;
Who seem to die live.
House you were born in,
friends of your spring-time,
Old man and young maid,
Day’s toil and its guerdon,
They are all vanishing,
Fleeing to fables,
Cannot be moored.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
After the death of his grandfather, an ordinary boy called Jacob finds himself in a world he never could have imagined. Hunted by creatures only he can see, he finds himself ‘lost’ between two worlds. Worlds that are separate, worlds that aren’t separate… as written in the poem above: sleep is not, death is not. The unfortunate death of his grandfather Abe forces Jacob to search for the truth about his grandfather and in finding the truth Jacob will find his own identity (which is the main conflict in the book). Jacob soon finds himself in a different world, and he has to trust himself as well as Miss Peregrine and new friend Emma. Eventually, Jacob makes a choice and he knows where he belongs. Jacob’s journey could therefore also be reflected as the crisis he’s going through as to where he would like to live.
Another theme in the book is trust, and this is for example reflected on page 247:
“He could see the monsters. The moment she said it, all the horrors I thought I’d put behind me came flooding back. They were real. They were real and they’d killed my grandfather. “Ï can see them, too” I told her, whispering it like a secret shame.
Her eyes welled and she embraced me. “I knew there was something peculiar about you,” she said. “” And I mean that as the highest compliment.””
All along they’ve known there was something that bonded them, which they couldn’t explain but what could exist only by trusting each other. Furthermore, a huge secret is revealed which exposes a vulnerability and trusting each other is therefore essential.
The group discussion was about the role of the parents. Parents in Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children are authority figures. Jacob’s mother is absent and his father is living his own life (he’s writing a book about birds). Jacob’s grandfather was never a father to Jacob’s father because of his travels. Miss Peregrine acts as a substitute mother for Jacob and the rest of the kids. In contrast of Jacob’s own parents, Miss Peregrine takes her role very serious and she’s protecting ‘her peculiar children’.
Peculiar is about being different, and this is also a theme in the book. Being different is something we put a lot of emphasis on in our society. In our group discussion we agreed that adolescents should be given the opportunity to understand and comment on their own change as well as the change of others through reading, discussing, writing, research and other forms of expression. Adults should help them and guide them to explore their identity but never restrict them.
The plot involves great events. The characters do important things, and what happens to them in the course of the story is unusual, dramatic and meaningful. (Chambers, *) Furthermore, identity is a major theme and referring to the 5th stage of Erikson’s stages of development and the major question: “Who am I?” this book will provide teens with a need to develop a sense of self and personal identity in the transition from childhood to adulthood. (Erikson, 1970) Therefore, this book will appeal to young adults and the suitable age group for this book would be from 12 years up until 18 years.
Bibliography:
Chambers, A. (*). What makes a great novel for children? https://hubl.hu.nl/archive/file/439975 Retrieved 19 March 2020.
Erikson, E.H. (1970). Reflections on the dissent of contemporary youth. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 51, 11-22.
Riggs, R. (2011). Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Philadelphia, PA: Quirk Books.
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