Your guide to the Peculiardom

Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children is a young readers series that follows the story of a teenage boy, Jacob, on an adventure to save peculiar children from the monsters that threatened to destroy them once and for all.

With each child possessing special powers, they are carefully protected, though threats to their lives are constant. Following up on the ‘fairy tales’ told by his recently-deceased grandfather, Jacob learns that the tales weren’t made up – they were all true. Worst of all, the monsters are to blame for his death.

Combining fantastic storytelling with vintage photography, this series is equal parts eerie and thrilling. Once you start reading, you won’t be able to stop until you’ve finished all six books.

The basics

• Author: Ransom Riggs
• First published: 2011
• Number of books in the series: 6
  1. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
  2. Hollow City
  3. Library Of Souls
  4. A Map of Days
  5. The Conference of the Birds
  6. The Desolations of Devil's Acre

The books

WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

Book 1: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

Book 2: Hollow City

September 3, 1940. Ten peculiar children flee an army of deadly monsters. And only one person can help them—but she’s trapped in the body of a bird. The extraordinary journey that began in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children continues as Jacob Portman and his newfound friends journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. There, they hope to find a cure for their beloved headmistress, Miss Peregrine. But in this war-torn city, hideous surprises lurk around every corner. 

Book 3: Library Of Souls

Jacob discovers a powerful new ability, and soon he’s diving through history to rescue his peculiar companions from a heavily guarded fortress. Accompanying Jacob on his journey are Emma Bloom, a girl with fire at her fingertips, and Addison MacHenry, a dog with a nose for sniffing out lost children.

They’ll travel from modern-day London to the labyrinthine alleys of Devil’s Acre, the most wretched slum in all of Victorian England. It’s a place where the fate of peculiar children everywhere will be decided once and for all.

Book 4: A Map of Days

Having defeated the monstrous threat that nearly destroyed the peculiar world, Jacob Portman is back in Florida, where his story began.

Joined by Miss Peregrine, Emma and their peculiar friends, life has become carefree. But it's not meant to last. The discovery of Jacob's grandfather's subterranean bunker leads to clues about his double-life as a peculiar operative.

Book 5: The Conference of the Birds

With his dying words, H - Jacob's final connection to his grandfather Abe's secret life - entrusts Jacob with a mission: Deliver newly contacted peculiar Noor Pradesh to an operative known only as V.

Book 6: The Desolations of Devil's Acre

The last thing Jacob Portman saw before the world went dark was a terrible, familiar face.

Suddenly, he and Noor are back in the place where everything began - his grandfather's house. Jacob doesn't know how they escaped from V's loop to find themselves in Florida. But he does know one thing for certain: Caul has returned.

Companion books

Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders

A gloriously rich and utterly delightful handbook perfect for longtime fans and new readers alike, covering everything from how to blend in with suspicious normals to the most popular time loops to visit as a temporal tourist. This essential volume is the ideal primer for anyone curious about the world of Miss Peregrine: an overview of its strange history, curious practices, fascinating places, the most famous (and infamous) members of its peculiar families, and much more.

Tales of the Peculiar

In this collection, Ransom invites you to share his secrets and uncover hidden information about the peculiar world. A fork-tongued princess, and wealthy cannibals who dine on the discarded limbs of peculiars, are just two of the stories sure to please the many fans of the series.

Featuring stunning illustrations from world-renowned artist Andrew Davidson, this compelling, rich, and truly peculiar anthology is the perfect gift for not only fans, but for all lovers of great storytelling.

Miss Peregrine's Journal For Peculiar Children

You may not have an ymbryne as your guide, but now you can map your days, record your most peculiar thoughts, and bare your second soul in this beautifully designed journal that’s right out of the world of the peculiars. Features vintage black-and-white photos and quotes from all three books in the best-selling Peculiar Children series. It’s the perfect companion whether you’re traveling peculiardom or caught in a loop.

The characters

• Jacob Portman
  • Jacob is the main character and the grandson of Abraham Portman. He has a relatively normal life in Florida until his grandfather dies and Jacob suspects there’s more to the story than the police are letting on. When Jacob travels to Cairnholm, Wales to learn about his grandfather’s past, he learns more than he could have expected – including the fact that Jacob himself is a peculiar with the ability to see hollowgast.
• Emma Bloom
  • Emma is one of the main characters, she is the main love interest throughout the series and one of the first peculiar children that Jacob encounters. For her special power, Emma has the ability to manipulate fire.
• Miss Peregrine
  • Miss Peregrine is ymbryne who is the headmistress and protector of the school children. She can transform into a Peregrine falcon, and in the first book, it is revealed that she also knew Jacob’s grandfather.
• Other Peculiar Children
  • Millard: can be invisible
  • Hugh: controls bees
  • Bronwyn: super strength
  • Victor Bruntley: super strength
  • Enoc O’Connor: can raise the dead
  • Olive Abroholos Elephanta: levitation

Beings in the peculiardom

• Peculiars: a type of human who has a second soul that manifests in the form of special powers
• Ymbrynes: a special form of female peculiars who can transform into birds and manipulate time, they create time loops in order to protect peculiars from hollowgast and wights
• Hollowgast: monsters who feed on pecuilars, they were created by an accidental explosion during an experiment to achieve immortality, they have no souls and
• Wights: hollowgasts that have consumed enough peculiar souls to return to human form, they look completely human with the exception of having all-white eyes, they can pass through time loops and are constantly hunting peculiars to feed on

An introduction to the Pecuilar Children universe

The series begins with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children with a topsy-turvy introduction that introduces Jacob Portman and the world of the peculiars.

When Jacob’s grandfather passes away, the police conclude that he was attacked by wild animals – but having seen a mysterious creature in the woods at the scene of the attack, Jacob doesn’t quite buy it. In an attempt to learn more about his late grandfather, Jacob travels with his father to the island of Cairnholm in Wales where his grandfather lived as a child.

While exploring the island, Jacob meets a young girl and invisible boy, Emma and Millard, who take him into a time loop on September 3, 1940. In the loop, Jacob learns that there are many other children like  Emma and Millard, called peculiars, who all have special powers. Under the watchful eye of Miss Peregrine, a ymbryne, the children relive the same day over and over again, in order to survive a bombing on that day that occurred during World War II. Despite the loop, however, the peculiars nevertheless face threats as outside forces attempt to destroy their sanctuary – namely, Hollowgast and Wights, evil creatures with a desire to live forever.

Jacob must figure out how to save the loop, Miss Peregrine and his new friends, the peculiar children.

Ready to start the series? Check out the first book.