The young adult novel, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs, was released in 2011 and came out as a movie this year in September. I hadn't heard about this story until I saw the trailer for it at the movie theatre and decided I really wanted to read the book before I saw the movie.

The Novel:

The thing I love about this book is it's use of antique looking photographs. The author, Ransom Rigg's first intention was to make a picture book out of photographs that he had collected because he is a photograph collector. But instead, with advice from an editor, he decided to make it a novel based on the photographs. Throughout the novel, readers follow the main character, Jacob's, story and incorporating the pictures as Jacob comes across them in the story. Although, I find it weird that Emma was in love with Jacob's grandpa when he was Jacob's age and is falling for Jacob now that he has found out about the peculiar children. Which is possible because she has been unable to age

The Movie:

I love being able to see this wonderfully peculiar (see what I did there)(ugh sorry) story come to life with Tim Burton's beautiful style of movie direction. The movie was very visually pleasing and although the story was altered from the plot line in the book it was still enjoyable. However, the acting was particularly bad in the beginning and gradually got better. The ending felt very rushed and I think they tried to resolve everything but didn't give enough time to do so.

What's Different:

Emma:

In the book, the character Emma, who has a romantic involvement with Jacob, has the power to ignite flames directly from her hands. However, in the movie she has the power to levitate.

Olive:

Olive and Emma's powers were switched for the movie so Olive is the levitating one in the book but has the fire power in the movie. I am guessing that the writer for the movie, Jane Goldman, and the director, Tim Burton, thought that the power to levitate was better fitting for her role in the movie plot or just simply thought levitating is cooler than lighting fire in from hands and gave it to Emma because she is a more developed character than Olive.

Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet:

The ymbrynes (lady's that care for peculiar children and have the ability to manipulate time) were kidnapped by the wight(monster) that had pretended to be Jacob's physicist, while Jacob, Emma, Millard, Enoch, and Bronwyn were outside of the loop(a past date that exists and repeats every day through the ymbrynes powers) looking for answers about the wight. But in the movie the wight took only Miss Peregrine while all the kids were in the house. In the movie, Miss Avocet gets killed by a hollowgast (monster) but in the book she is still alive but just still being held captive by a wight and Miss Peregrine is the only one the kids were able to safe from the wight.

The Shipwreck Site:

When Emma shows Jacob the ship in the book she doesn't have air manipulating powers so they breath through a tube from the surface. In the movie, Emma is able to use her air manipulating powers to blow all of the water out of the ship so they can breath but there aren't any light up fish that look like stars like in the book.

Romance:

Emma and Jacob kiss more in the book than in the movie.

Jacob's Dad:

The movie makes the Dad out to be a lot worse of a father than I had thought while reading the book.

The Ending:

In the book, Jacob goes with the peculiar children after the loop is destroyed to go look for Miss Avocet and stop the wights from kidnapping more ymbrynes. But in the movie, Miss Avocet gets killed by a hollowgast (monster) and in the book she is still alive but just still being held captive by a wight and Miss Peregrine is the only one the kids were able to safe from the wight. Also in the movie, there is a whole fighting scene in an amusement park that I suppose is the substitute for the book fighting at the lighthouse which I think would have been cooler. In the book, there isn't the whole Jacob going on a crazy trip to track down the peculiar children haven't he regrets leaving them instead, in the book, he went them right away after saying goodbye to his dad and somewhat explaining what had happened. They kids also sailed away in simple sailing boats unlike on the salavaged shipwrecked boat like in the movie.

Overall:

More often than not the book is better than the movie, but I think its important to acknowledge what is good and bad about both perspectives.