Ransom Riggs: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children

From the blurb-
...a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that Miss Peregrine's children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow-impossible though it seems-they may still be alive.
This book is illustrated with a collection of vintage photographs that were the inspiration for the children's various talents. While the said talents would be remarkable I didn't feel it was explained why that would make them dangerous and feel the author could have made more of the for-their-own-protection angle and increased the believability of the work. The story also throws up a number of logistical questions that I don't feel were adequately addressed, though it was good that the author at least acknowledged the difficulty of the situation (and I can't be less criptic without spoilers) and attempted to address it.
But perhaps I am being too picky. This is, after all, aimed at the young adult market and is the author's debut novel.
The story itself is well written and engaging. The hero is a little bland but the author captures the selfishness/thoughtlessness of his age well. The world building is a bit perfunctory but good enough as far as it goes.
After reading a lot of glowing reviews for this work in the mainstream press my expectations were quite high so maybe it was inevitable that I would come away a bit disappointed. And I am a little let down even though I did enjoy the story.-Lynn

Shaun Tan: Tales from Outer Suburbia

From the back of the book-
Shaun Tan…reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange students and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight.
When my teenaged daughter brought this book home from school I was a little surprised. She’s well past the age where I would expect her to be perusing the junior section of the library. However, I’m glad she decided to share this discovery with me. This picture book for older children is truly delightful.
At first glance the illustrations appear simple, even slightly rough but with closer inspection they reveal themselves to be incredibly detailed and highly expressive. Though many of the stories are accompanied by words, the pictures are so rich as to make them superfluous. Having said that, the author has a succinct way with words, getting a maximum of meaning and emotion out of a minimum of syllables.
This is a layered work offering more than is simply, and beautifully, presented on the pages. I don’t know how it is I’ve never come across this author before but I would highly recommend his works to all.-Lynn

Flotsam – David Weisner

Flotsam tells the story of a scientifically inquisitive young boy at the beach. After examining a crab under a magnifying glass, he wanders down to the sea edge to see what else there is to look at, and is bowled over by a wave. Among the flotsam washed up is an old-fashioned, waterproof camera. When the boy takes the film to be developed he discovers an underwater world he’d never imagined, and a photo of another child, holding a photo of a child holding a photo… when he puts the picture under a microscope he can see pictures right back to the turn of the nineteenth century.
The story line is creative, but what sets Flotsam apart is the quality of the illustrations – wholly without words Weisner, in beautifully detailed and imaginative drawings, conveys a range of emotions (the sequence where the boy waits impatiently for the photos to be developed articulates a combination of boredom, anticipation and impatience more articulately than words could), scientific curiosity rewarded, and the scenarios he portrays are fantastic. From a school of fish, where one is mechanical clockwork, to giant walking islands of starfish, from storytime in a sqid family’s living room to tiny alien explorers, the level of detail and uniqueness means that Flotsam is fresh however often it’s encountered.
We don’t usually review picture books, but Weisner’s work is exceptional – I have every one of his hard-to-source-in-Australia books – and Flotsam was such a hit with my three-year-old niece that I felt compelled to include it here. - Alex