Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (book 1) by Ransom Riggs. The inspiration for this series was to put stories to old photographs of children. Riggs builds an elaborate fantasy world of peculiar children with strange powers, times travel, and monsters who want to exterminate the children and their guardians. Set during World War II in the United Kingdom, the plot reflects the plight of the evacuated children with the monsters playing the role of Nazis.
The protagonist Jacob Portman is a troubled teenager with vision and nightmares of monsters. The source of these hallucinations is the stories he’s heard from his grandfather Abraham Portman. [These names are Jewish patriarchs, further reinforcing the World War II connection.] When his grandfather dies, Jacob goes off on a quest to learn the truth of his grandfather’s life and stories. This quest takes him to Cairnholm Island off the coast of Wales.
On the island, he learns the truth: his grandfather hunted monsters (called hollows and wights); he has special powers and the answer to his teenage angst to the abandon the normal world.
On the positive side, the peculiar children are pretty interesting.
If you’re interested in a World War II fantasy/allegory with familiar conflicts and resolutions, this is the book for you. Peculiar but not surprising.
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