Why a Booktrail?
An American teenager travels to a small island in Wales to discover the secrets of his grandfather’s childhood. The cover even looks scary and mysterious
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
What you need to know before your trail
Jacob is an American teenager from Florida who travels to a small, remote Welsh island to discover the secrets of his grandfather’s childhood. He is your typical American teenager apart from the fact that his grandfather is very strange indeed with a peculiar and mysterious past. The most mysterious places from this past is the ouse he speaks of, where he grew up. His grandfather has had a troublesome past as he along with his jewish family escaped from Poland during the war.
His grandfather has always told him weird and wonderful stories about his past and this little island in Wales in particular but Jacob is about to find out that these stories were in fact truths wrapped in disguise.
And that truth is indeed often a lot stranger than fiction.
Travel Guide
The past is the most mysterious place of all it would seem after reading this novel. For whilst memories might decorate the walls, and photographs fill in the gaps, stories wrap the past in a whole new light…but its only when you travel to a place do you often find out the truth behind these stories.
This is a spooky and extremely atmospheric journey into the darkest recesses of someone’s mind. Jacob wants to uncover the truth about his grandfather’s past and the children that he lived with in the big old house on the island.
Wales-an island
“It was an enchanted place, he said, designed to keep kids safe from the monsters, on an island where the sun shined every day and nobody ever got sick or died. Everyone lived together in a big us that was protected by a wise old bird.”
The island in question is named Cairnholm in the book and is fictional yet there are a few islands where the novel could have been inspired by. The island of Stokholm for example is small and stunning with lots of bird wildlife. Unlike Cairnholm, it does have electricity and there are telephones and there are no dilapidated houses wit strange children living there. Of could it be Cardigan island in the north which is as physically isolated as Cairnholm?
“I knew from studying atlases that Cymru meant Wales, Cairholm island had to be the one that miss Peregrine had mentioned in her letter. Could it be the same island where my grandfather llivd as a boy?”
The story makes the island real and the setting is as gothic and evocative as they come. The photos which are dotted within the book offer even more shocks and starts and more then set up the atmosphere which hovers over the entire read.
“A spectral fog had begun to enshroud the island blanking it from view:
“Fog like this has a mind of its own…”
Booktrailer Review
Clare:
Well I’m not of the age of most YA fiction enthusiasts but this is a great read on so many levels. Weird and wonderful in equal measure. This fictitious island feels real, scarily real as does the fog and the dense atmosphere around it.
The very idea that this island and these people could exist is scary and a world away from anything I’d read before. Maybe its because I have such a vivid imagination but the words in the book, together with the vintage photographs made for one heck of a spooky read.
Apparently there is a film of this book and this comes as no surprise as its a very cinematic read with dark imagery and fantasy locations the order of the day. A eccentric read but one which has stayed with me!
Where Next?
