Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children(90)
One of the themes of Miss Peregrine, and I think of any novel that involves the discovery of a secret world, is awakening—the protagonist’s awakening to an awesome and wonderful and, in some ways, terrible reality he scarcely could’ve imagined before, but that was right under his nose all along. At the end of Miss Peregrine, Jacob writes that his life was never ordinary, but he “had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was.” Noticing the extraordinariness of the world is one of Emerson’s major themes. Again, from Nature: “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!”
Are there other writers whom you find particularly influential or inspiring?
Many, though it’s hard to draw a direct line between their work and mine. Reading John Green showed me how ambitious and engaging young adult literature could be—it’s so much better than most of the kiddie stuff I read as a teenager. While I’m writing, I like to read books by masters whose technique I can’t hope to match, just to keep the bar high. Cormac McCarthy. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried—his prose has such power and economy. I read a lot of nonfiction while I’m writing, too, to help give the historical bits convincing texture. The Likes of Us and Barnardo Boy are first-person accounts of what life was like in British orphanages in the first half of the twentieth century, and they were very helpful. And the poems of Seamus Heaney were an inspiration when it came to writing about mucky peat bogs and the strange things they contain.
Would you like to see those mucky peat bogs firsthand? If you could time-travel to any loop in history, where and when would you want to go?
Amazingly, I’ve never been asked this question! I’m not sure if there are loops in these places (and, anyway, I couldn’t get inside them because I’m not peculiar), but I’d love to see New York City in the mid-to late nineteenth century. Or some of Europe’s great cities before they were bombed during World War II. A real Roman city—that would be interesting. The opulence and multicultural energy of Venice in its heyday, in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. The Silk Road as traveled by Marco Polo. The list goes on!
We’re excited about the forthcoming sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. What can you tell us about it?
The first book was about opening a door and discovering a world. In the second book we get to explore that world. But it’s no tourist trip—it’s a world facing a mortal and existential threat, from both the Axis powers and from the Corrupted: the wights and the hollows. Jacob and his new friends embark upon a death-defying, time-trotting adventure to save their ymbrynes, their way of life, and perhaps the very world, and as they struggle to derail their enemies’ disastrous plans, they get themselves into all manner of peculiar and dangerous situations, meet all sorts of curious beings and unusual people, and explore places they never could’ve imagined. I’m still working out the details, but I can promise you this: It’ll be full of surprises!
Until then, I thought I’d share a few photos from Book II to tide everyone over. I don’t want to give too much away, but you can expect to see things like . . .
Now that you’ve finished the novel, here’s a sneak preview of how Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will look on the big screen.
Eva Green portrays Miss Peregrine, who oversees a magical place that is threatened by powerful enemies. Photo Credit: Leah Gallo.
Seated on the floor: the twins (Thomas and Joseph Odwell), Fiona (Georgia Pemberton) and Hugh (Milo Parker), Left to right: Emma (Ella Purnell), Jake (Asa Butterfield), Horace (Hayden Keeler-Stone), Miss Peregrine (Eva Green), Enoch (Finlay MacMillan), Claire (Raffiella Chapman), Bronwyn (Pixie Davies) and Olive (Lauren McCrostie) - are the very special residents of MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN. Photo Credit: Leah Gallo.
Judi Dench is Miss Avocet in MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN. Photo Credit: Jay Maidment.
Eva Green portrays Miss Peregrine, who oversees a magical place that is threatened by powerful enemies. Photo Credit: Jay Maidment.
Jake (Asa Butterfield) makes sure Emma (Ella Purnell) stays relatively down to earth. Photo Credit: Jay Maidment.
Jake (Asa Butterfield) and Emma (Ella Purnell) grow close in the extraordinary world of MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN. Photo Credit: Jay Maidment.
Miss Peregrine (Eva Green) takes aim at her powerful enemies. Photo Credit: Jay Maidment.
Meet some of the very special “Peculiars” - Left to right: Olive (Lauren McCrostie), Bronwyn (Pixie Davies), Millard (Cameron King), the twins (Thomas and Joseph Odwell) and Emma (Ella Purnell). Photo Credit: Jay Maidment.
The residents of MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN ready themselves for an epic battle against powerful and dark forces. Left to right: Enoch (Finlay MacMillan), Emma (Ella Purnell), Jake (Asa Butterfield), Hugh (Milo Parker), Bronwyn (Pixie Davies), the twins (Thomas and Joseph Odwell), Claire (Raffiella Chapman), Fiona (Georgia Pemberton), Horace (Hayden Keeler-Stone), Olive (Lauren McCrostie), and Millard (Cameron King). Photo Credit: Jay Maidment.