April Book Club: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

My electronic copy from Amazon has all the pictures.

 

I just started this morning and was hooked in the prologue. Now I'm almost done with Chapter 2 and may very well finish the book this weekend.

 

I just finished. The third book. I found after the first, I had to read them all to find out what happens. A peculiar book(s) indeed.

 

Finished.....I would have enjoyed it ......if I was 10.
I can understand, that for some of you who are teachers, or mums to young teens , this book would be enjoyable to read and talk about amongst yourselves.
But for me , sorry ,but without writing any spoilers, I better not comment yet .

 

LOl...I am #40 on the waitlist at my library! It is definitely classed as Young Adult which goes from middle school on up round here.

I think I'm going to buy the 3-book set from amazon and then donate it all to the Washington DC boys school we buy books for. I asked my husband if we'd bought this one/set and he said it didn't ring any bell. I'd ask my granddaughters but they did most of their pre-teen books on their kindles so no chance of borrowing from them!

 

I'm waiting on my library copy so I'm hoping it becomes available soon.

 

maybe a bit more than ten. Some scenes are a bit violent and of questionable moral judgement - which I would not put on a ten year old without some discussion, but its a strange set of books. I found the story sometimes too sophisticated for pre-teens. Sometimes too silly or fast forward even for ten year olds. The author found a bunch of old photos and wove a story around them to glamorize and fit. Peculiar indeed.

 

I had originally thought to suggest it to my 11 year old son, but after reading the first few chapters, I'm not impressed with a few references to "mom" jokes and other language and attitude with his friend. maybe it will get better as I go along but I'm only a little bit in yet. So far, I'm enjoying it though and if there are fewer of these inappropriate comments i'll probably continue to suggest my son read it. he likes these YA 'creepy' books.

 

depends on the child. my daughter is 9.5 and still fully believes. my son stopped WHEN he was 10. It all depends on what they're hearing at school, which is where they typically find out. My son said that when he was in 5th there were still girls who "claimed" they believed. though at the age of 11, I'm guessing they just want to believe, but I could be wrong.

 

Hi everyone. I decided to join in on this month's book. I had briefly heard of this a while back but it wasn't really on my radar until it was brought up here.

In general, I thought it was an entertaining read. And fast. I read the bulk of it yesterday and finished it this evening. I also think it will make an entertaining film and I'm always glad when I read the book before the film comes out. I do plan on reading the next two books too because once I start a series, I have to know how it all ends, lol!

That being said, I did have a few issues with it. At times, I had to remind myself who the intended audience was and at times, I wondered how a parent would allow their child to read this. The recommended age is listed at 13-17, which makes sense to me, but I was kind of surprised to see comments online about 9 and 10 year olds reading this.

I also had mixed feelings about the photos but I bet I'm on my own about this. They were definitely peculiar and creepy, which I guess was supposed to add to the story, but I felt they weren't really necessary. I understand that the story was written around the photos but in some cases, it seemed like a stretch to get a particular photo to fit and for me, the description of the photo was usually good enough.

Anyway, that's my two cents for now. Can't wait to hear what everyone else thinks!

 

Nearly Spoiler.

There are several referrals to Santa. Personally I would be more concerned with the reference to a severed head in a fridge, or resurrecting people using animal hearts....

 

You are quite right. References to Santa went right by me, but I did find resurrecting dead bodies for questioning very gruesome.

 

I'm 5 or 6 chapters in, and enjoying it, but not devouring it. I think the writing is great. I really have a feel of who Jacob is and what his personality is, and even his family members too.

Most young adult books I've read had female lead characters, so it is interesting to read from a boy's point of view.

 

I read the first chapter on Amazon and then bought a copy of the book. Ready to start today...and yes, it seems delightfully weird! I was the girl who loved the grisly fairy tales...

 

I finished the book today. I thought it was well written and entertaining. The photos did have a spooky quality, but I find that true of many old photographs. I understand that early photography required film to be exposed for a long time, so people hat to sit very still, and perhaps needed neutral facial expressions.

The thing about the photos that tripped me up was the comparison of their descriptions, their dialog, and then the pictures. The apparent ages in the photos seemed at odds with my mental picture of them. Maybe because the words "boy" and "girl" make me think of elementary school age children, even though they could equally apply to teenagers. I guess there was a little discussion by Jacob about their "ages," but I never really came to a conclusion about how I should expect these children to act: like children, or like grown ups, as they were all many decades old. It wasn't really clear to me.

 

I am currently on book 2. I have read the first book twice. The first time was when it was first published. For those of you that have finished, you know why I was so angry with the ending. I read book one again right before I started book two. I am enjoying it so far.

 

Frankly the ending didn't make me angry , or want to buy another book to see what happens next. I was happy to put it down after the last 2 or 3 chapters, never to open it again.

 

I feel similarly. Not sure if I will pursue the series. I felt the book had a nice closing. The book introduced the "world" in which it takes place, the dangers that need to be faced, and set the stage for the coming conflict.