In the new bestselling book "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children," by Ransom Riggs, 16-year-old Jacob has the adventure of several lifetimes. After a devastating family tragedy, he finds himself headed for a remote island off the coast of Wales and what remains of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, a mysterious place that has, until now, only existed in his grandfather's bedtime stories. Who were these children? What made them peculiar, and why were they sent here? And are they really gone from this place?

We enjoyed this book a great deal, partially because it feels -- and looks -- different than most fantasy novels written for tweens and teens. The story uses vintage photography that's both unsettling and very cool. We think IML'ers will find this one a great summer read full of suspense, mystery, and weird pictures you'll want to show your friends.

Ransom took some time recently to answer our questions for curious (and perhaps peculiar) IML readers!

IML: Can you tell us a bit about the evolution of the book? Do you remember the initial spark that inspired the story?

Ransom: Absolutely.  I've been an amateur photographer since I was a kid, but a few years ago I got interested in another kind of photography -- found photography.  That is: old pictures that used to belong to people but don't have homes anymore.  You can find them at garage sales and second-hand stores and on eBay, and the more I saw of them, the more old pictures I found that I thought were really beautiful.  So I started collecting them.  

One particular kind of old photograph that interested me was pictures of kids -- many of which seemed sort of creepy, with the kids not smiling, wearing old, weird-looking clothes, and having crazy-looking hair.  I started wondering about them, what their stories were.  I couldn't know the truth, of course, since I had no idea who they were. So instead I made up stories about them, one after another, and those were the seeds of the characters -- the peculiar children -- that Jacob meets in the book.


IML: The photographs are pretty fascinating. Where do they come from? What can you tell us about the process of finding them and working them into the story?

Ransom: Almost all of them come from flea markets and antique stores.  Many were lent to me by other photo collectors -- people who've been searching for cool old pictures for ten, twenty years, and have really amazing stuff. Working them into the story was the fun part -- but also a challenge.  Sometimes I would come across a photo I really liked as I was writing, and I would find a way to change the story enough so that I could work the photo into the book.  Other times I knew I needed to tell the story in a certain way, so I went out looking for photos of specific types of people or events, to fit what I had already written.  So it was a strange, organic process where the photos influenced what I wrote and what I wrote also influenced the kinds of photos I was looking for.

IML: Usually, you don't see any kind of "visual aids" in books for tweens and teens -- like readers are supposed to outgrow them at a certain point. What do you think they add to the experience of a book?

Ransom: They say that a photograph is worth a thousand words, but I think there are things about really great photographs that you can't describe with even a million words. They're sort of like the soundtrack to a film.  You can take away the music that's playing during a movie scene, and it doesn't really change the meaning of the scene -- but it's hard to argue that good music doesn't add something to the viewing experience. At the same time, just any music won't do. If the music feels wrong, it'll be jarring and mess up the scene. It's the same with photos in a book. The wrong photos would be distracting and mess up the reading experience. If I describe a scene or a person in words and then show you a picture and it's absolutely nothing like what you were imagining, it's like bad music in a film. It takes you out. But a picture that gels with the text can add all sorts of layers and details that would take forever to describe in words.

IML: You're also a filmmaker. How is the process of writing a book different from the process of making a film?

Ransom: You write books alone. You can't make a film without lots of people helping you: actors, cinematographers, editors, sound designers. They're all writing the movie along with you as you make it. So you have to be really open to collaboration. When you write a novel, you're only really collaborating with one person: your editor. And in this brave new Internet age, you may never even meet that person!

IML: Who were the authors and what were the books you loved when you were a
pre-teen?

Ransom: I loved the Chronicles of Narnia.  John Bellairs's young adult mysteries were great, and super creepy.  Ghost stories and Sherlock Holmes mysteries were great.  And I had a major soft spot for those Choose Your Own Adventure books.

IML: There's a big (but good) "creep out" factor in this book. Why do you think it's so fun to be "creeped out" when you're reading?

Ransom: I think creepiness is directly related to the unknown, and things that are mysterious (and a bit dark), and wondering about those things is fun and fascinating.  What's buried in the lost tomb?  Are aliens real?  Was it a ghost that just knocked over the picture frame in my room? What makes zombies get up and walk around when they're supposed to be dead? Creepy is better than just plain scary, because you can't look away from creepy -- you want to know the truth!

IML: Definitely! Thank you so much for letting readers know a bit more of the "story behind the story."

Ransom: You're welcome!