Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

This book is the story of Jacob's quest to decipher the meaning behind his grandfather's mysterious last words. As it turns out, his grandfather was one of the children sent from mainland Europe to England to escape the Holocaust--but he was subject to additional dangers because he was peculiar and so found himself in the care of Miss Peregrine. The book is beautifully illustrated with vintage photographs (repurposed as illustrations of the peculiar children) and a mythology slowly develops. Indeed, as the story continues, you begin to realize that worlds and ideas are opened that could not possibly be closed within the confines of the novel. I'll be interested in seeing how the sequel develops and how the world of the peculiar children plays out. The part of this novel that felt clunkiest to me was the portrayal family relationships between Jacob and his family (especially his parents). I understand why the main character needs to be a loner or isolated in this story, but it didn't seem to be handled quite as smoothly as it could have been. Otherwise a fantastic and fantastical story!