HOLLOW CITY

Hollow City:

The Second Novel of Miss Peregrines Peculiar Children

By Ransom Riggs

Published by Quirk Books

Copyright © 2014

Review by Anthony Kendrick

In the “Miss Peregrine” series the side show freaks are the main attraction and I wouldn’t have it any other way. This second book gives us even more peculiars, even more action, and even more suspense. This sequel definitely lives up to, and even surpasses the original!

The adventures of Miss Peregrine and her peculiar children continue in Hollow City. Miss Peregrine has been saved from the Wights but she is stuck in bird form, and only another ymbryne can cure her. So, her wards will embark on a journey to find help in war torn London of 1940. Finding one uncaptured ymbryne is hard enough, but with bombs dropping everywhere, Wights disguised as allied soldiers, and Hollowghast seeking to eat them alive it becomes a nearly impossible task. With the help of a menagerie of peculiar animals, some gypsies, and some stray peculiars they will find the only free ymbryne in London, but will they find her quick enough to save Miss Peregrine?

Ransom Riggs surprised me with his initial offering “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” which seemed like an old fashioned X-Men. The story, however, was heavily focused on Jacob Portman the boy from the future who finds the Cairnholm Loop and can see the Hollowghast. Jacob is still the main protagonist and the development of his abilities play a key role in the safety of him and his friends, but Riggs real victory here is that he develops the other peculiar children more fully in “Hollow City”. He also delivers on the X-Men feel with more action as Miss Peregrine’s peculiars show how useful their powers can really be in a fight; I mean who really thought that a boy who has bees living in him would find a way to be useful. (And why in the world do bees live in him anyway!? Riggs gives us a very succinct answer.) Additionally, he adds to his cast of peculiars by introducing child and adult peculiars from other loops and times whose abilities are just as odd and powerful.

If I had any qualms with the story it was that the relationship between Jacob and Emma got a little boring at times, but I understand its utility within the story. That said, “Hollow City” is the perfect sequel. I loved it just as much or more than the first book. One fantastic thing is that the author has left us hanging once again, so we know there will be a third in the series. I don’t want to give too much away, but just when everything seems to be going right it doesn’t. And just when heartbreaking decisions are made, they are turned upside down. I am now eagerly awaiting the third installment even more anxiously than I did the second. Fans of Fantasy, and comic book fans (this is not a comic book), should read this story. Riggs really shows how good Juvenile and Young Adult novels can be.

THE TWITS

By Roald Dahl
Illustrated by Quentin Blake
Copyright © 1980
Review by Anthony Kendrick

What happens when 2 of the meanest old people come up against 4 young boys, 4 monkeys, 1 roly-poly bird from Africa, and hundreds of European birds? They get outwitted.

Mr. and Mrs. Twit are old, mean, and ugly. Mr. Twit has a long, unkempt, food littered beard and Mrs. Twit has a screwed up face and a glass eye that always stares in the wrong direction. These two used to be decent looking people but years of bad thinking has made them look as ugly as their thoughts. Mr. and Mrs. Twit love to torture each other with mean spirited practical jokes. They like to catch unsuspecting birds and make bird pie. And they like to train monkeys to perform upside down. All of this meanness is going to catch up with the Twits when the birds conspire with the monkeys to give the Twits what they deserve.

Giving mean and obnoxious people consequences of their actions is what Roald Dahl does best. In “The Twits” Dahl gives us two people who are laughably mean. The practical jokes that they play on each other are pretty old fashioned and low-tech by today’s standards, but still very funny. That said, however, the retaliation of the monkey’s and birds was in general predictable, so the first half of the book was more enjoyable than the last half.

After reading this and many other Roald Dahl books, I have to say that to me his writing style seems very giddy. It is not always pleasant to read because bits and pieces are always added, and sometimes you never do realize why they are there. I think this is what makes his stories enjoyable for children though, because when they read his books, they read as if a child was telling the story. That, I believe, is a hard thing to accomplish, and that is why he remains one of the most loved children’s authors of all time.

THE FAIRY RING: OR ELSIE AND FRANCES FOOL THE WORLD

Non-Fiction
By Mary Losure
Published by Candlewick Press
Copyright © 2012
Review by Anthony Kendrick

 

I thought that Sherlock was the smartest detective ever, until he (his creator) was fooled by two young girls.

“The Fairy Ring” is the true story of how, in an attempt to get their fathers to stop picking on them, Elsie and Frances made the world think about fairies and made some very prominent people believe in them. Of course getting the world to believe in fairies was not part of the plan, but when Elsie’s mother attended a Theosophist Society meeting and told everyone her daughter had taken pictures of fairies everything began to snowball, until Elsie and Frances just couldn’t tell the truth. Regardless if the pictures were a farce, decades later Elsie and Frances still couldn’t agree on the truth about fairies.

The fairy ring is an intriguing book because it illustrates so deeply how much humans want to believe in the supernatural. We have an innate need to believe that there is more to life that we cannot see; that there are intelligent beings behind the scenes. This book shows this to be the case even with some very brilliant men. I really enjoyed seeing the pictures that the girls took as well. I thought that they showed how good an artist Elsie was, and to me it made the deception more understandable. Setting the farce aside, the images are quite charming.

Whether you believe, or want to believe, in fairies I am sure that you will enjoy this book. And I still think that Sherlock is brilliant!