Growing up, Jacob Portman was captivated by stories of his grandfather's childhood at the Home for Peculiar Children. Grandpa Portman would tell tales of levitating girls, girls who could make fire, invisible boys, and children with mouths on the backs of their heads. And he would back-up his stories with haunting old images of these same children.
When Grandpa Portman is murdered, Jacob travels to Cairnholm with his ornothologist father to investigate Grandpa Portman's bizarre childhood. Together, the pair seek to calm Jacob's nightmares about his grandfather's death. Were Grandpa Portman's stories true, or is everything in Jacob's disturbed mind? And who, or what, is responsible for Abe Portman's death?
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a coming-of-age story with an eeriness that is amplified by old-fashioned photographs of these peculiar children with their unique "talents." The photographs are actually from Ransom Riggs' own collection that he has gathered over several years at flea markets.