Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, a captivating, marvelous book for young adults, written by Ransom Riggs, made it on the USA Today’s best sellers list as the third best selling book and stayed there for ten weeks.

The book is set in the present day. It starts off in a small suburban town, with the sixteen-year-old the main character, Jacob, spending most of his time with his grandfather who, to friends and family, comes across as a schizophrenic. Grandpa Portman tells Jacob stories about monsters from his childhood that are now returning to haunt him. Grandpa Portman also tells stories about children with amazing supernatural powers whom he used to live with in an orphanage during World War II. As a young boy, Jacob had been shocked and awed with the amazing pictures that his grandfather showed him, but now that Jacob is older, his grandfather’s stories have started to seem more and more bizarre. It is only when his grandfather dies that Jacob tries to find out more about what happened in the orphanage his grandfather grew up in during World War II.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the paranormal or anyone who simply likes mysteries. It kept me hooked from the very first page. Riggs’ captivating story seems more realistic because of the strange pictures that are scattered throughout its pages, which at first do not seem that strange, until the grandfather begins to explain their significance.

I give this book five stars. It is defiantly a well-written book, with enough suspense to keep the reader engaged throughout.

Director Tim Burton recently announced he would be interested in directing a film based on this book. The release date for the movie will be sometime in 2013. This book’s genera is right up Burton’s alley with its creepy, gothic drama.  The book’s author, Riggs, is also a movie director and has written sever lesser-known books include Talking Pictures, The Sherlock Holmes Handbook, Strange Geographies, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.